Time And Time Again
by Galacticexplorer12
Summary: One day constantly repeats itself, and this temporal circle is driving the Nations mad (and not in the funny way). The G8 must get to the bottom of this and fast. Their answers lie in the mysteries of space and through the sands of time. Luckily they have some help- but it never is that easy. Major OC warning: None of them are romantically involved with any canon characters.
1. Prologue

SHORT NOTE- This is a sequel to one of my other stories, "Shiki-ed Out", a Ghost Hunt Fanfiction, which is a sequel to "Everyone Knows Psychics Don't Exist, Right?", a Bones Fanfiction, but can be read alone. But now with where this story is going and how it might end, it might help you understand the plot-line better if you read the prequel. Also, better summaries of my stories can be found on my profile page, including this one. Anyway, on with the story?

* * *

><p><strong>Prologue<strong>

Germany sighed. It was the end of yet another painful, torturous World Meeting. Italy was tagging along behind him. If it weren't for Japan in between the two of them, Italy would most certainly be all over him. Germany's sky-blue eyes were directed straight in front of him, watching the sidewalk. Japan's eyes were zoned out, while Italy's were glued to the sky.

"Ooh! Look at that pretty light!" He exclaimed while pointing up.

"Those are the stars, _Dummkopf._" Germany muttered without looking up.

"No, no! Look, look, Germany! It's getting closer!"

"Stars do not get closer, Italy-san." Japan replied.

"But this one is! And there are littler ones coming after it! Like a mamma and four kids!"

"What do you mean?"

"Just look!" Germany decided to humor the kid and looked up to see none other than a gigantic meteor coated in purple flame headed straight for the Earth. Four others, miniature copies of the original, were beginning to disperse.

"Holy _führer!_" He exclaimed. Japan looked up as well.

"See! Pretty lights!"

"Those are meteors!"

"They look like they're going to hit us!" Japan remarked. This snapped sense into the crazy Italian, who, quick as lightning, pulled out a homemade white flag.

"White flag! White flag! Don't hit us; can't you see the white flag?" He cried. Of course, the meteors didn't stop. Germany bit back a retort, while Japan wondered if this was the time that he should 'facepalm,' as America called it. Seeing no sign of stopping, Italy did the next best thing he could think of. "Run away!" He squealed. Japan followed, with Germany hot on his trail.

"Why can't you run this fast during training?" He called after him. They turned back to where the meteors were, but they were gone. The only thing left was a ring of purple smoke.

"That was not natural!" Japan remarked. _No duh,_ Germany thought. Suddenly, the ring began to pulsate. It continued to get bigger and more threatening until an explosion knocked the three Nations off their feet.


	2. Strange Findings: America

**Strange Findings: America**

America groggily woke up the next morning. That crazy meeting yesterday had practically drained every ounce of strength he had. So he had just staggered back home, up to bed, and fell asleep. His vision focused to see a strange oval shape with black holes in it right in his face. That definitely-not-human shape jolted him awake.

"AH!" He exclaimed. "Dude, don't do that!" Tony, his alien pet, only snickered as he witnessed his friend's reaction.

"But you…"

"Not now, Tony!" Alfred jumped up, remembering something he had to do. However, he was completely brain-dead. He was rushing about his house, trying to remember what he needed.

"Your-"

"I've got to go somewhere, but I don't remember anything!"

"The world meeting-"

"YES! I have my meeting- wait, what meeting? Why would there be one right after another?"

"What are you talking about? GO! You're already five minutes late!" Tony started shoving the American from behind.

"Tony! Stop that!"

"Move!" Somehow, the alien managed to push him out the door and slammed it shut. _What world meeting? Was everything yesterday just a dream? It felt too real to be a dream, but nowadays, everything seems like a dream._ It was true. Ever since World War II came to a close, it was hard to tell what was dream and what was reality. Shrugging off his suspicious feeling, he ran to the World Meeting building. It held the aura of 'meeting in progress'. He slammed the doors open to see all of the Countries sitting in their assigned seats. Only two were vacant, and the Countries were all staring at him.

"Uh… did I miss something?" America asked sheepishly.

"No, not really," England replied.

"_Oui_, we're still waiting on Germany and Italy." France added.

"That's strange…" America paused. The two nations just stared at him in response. The room went silent, waiting for someone to say something. And unfortunately, Romano took that privilege.

"Where the hell is that potato bastard?" He grumbled. Japan gave him a sideways glance.

"I think we should take advantage of this situation, _da_?" Came the insane Russian's suggestion. Lithuania began to cower at the sight of his tormentor's dark and evil aura.

"Take advantage as in how?" France asked, a glint of curiosity in his eyes.

"Don't ask him!" England shouted.

"Germany is not present at the moment, and he is not here to nag us unnecessarily. So now we can get all those happy little feelings out that we've been nurturing for eons. _Da_?" Russia suggested. A dead and eerie silence swallowed the room as each Country began to let Russia's comment soak in.

* * *

><p>Five minutes later…<p>

Everything flew into utter chaos as the nations argued and bickered with each other. England, America, and France were all yelling at each other; China was fruitlessly trying to split them up. Poland was attempting to defend Lithuania from the creepy-ness that is Russia. In the end, the pipe-wielding maniac found himself running away from his crazy sister, Belarus. Canada ended up trampled many times. Mexico was pestering anyone and everyone to buy a 'present' coming straight from Mexico City. And Japan just wanted everyone to shut up.

That's when the doors flew open. There stood Germany and Italy, in semi-dirty suits, panting. The entire room went silent. "It was his idea!" A hand flew over and pointed at Russia. A hard, cold glare met that unfortunate Country.

"What is going on here?" Germany demanded, although he didn't need an answer.

"Dude, why are you so late?" America inquired.

"That is of personal matter. Now everyone, back to your seats! We've wasted enough time already!" Everyone scrambled back to his or her seats in a hurry. From then on, everything proceeded… but not as smoothly as Germany would've hoped. However, America could've sworn this all happened yesterday, including the whole 'Russia suggesting we goof off' thing. As far as he knew, he was experiencing major deja vu.

* * *

><p>America stumbled home in a limping, hobbling way. At least three more fights broke out that day. Not even Germany could stop them. As far as he knew, the fierce and orderly Country <em>started<em> one. It was sheer madness. Sometimes, America wondered if they'd survive into the next millennium. He opened the door and walked in, almost slamming it in Tony's face.

"How'd it go?" The alien asked. Alfred groaned in response. "Well, while you all were out partying, I found something!"

"What is it _this_ time?" As soon as the words left his lips, Alfred regretted them.

"Pretty… pretty… hot girl!" That statement was met by a ferocious slap to the grey alien's face.

"You call me that again, and you'll really get what's coming to you!" This 'present' had brown hair that flowed loosely around her shoulders. She was wearing gold-colored dress slacks and light blazer, with sequins all over them. She also wore gold-colored high-heels. Under that blazer was a pink-ish tank top. Man, this lady needed a lesson in fashion.

"Who are you?" Alfred asked. "And why are you in my house?"

"You call me 'hot' and I'll personally suck out every last molecule of oxygen in your body!" Alfred shivered. That was certainly an odd and uncomfortable way of putting a death-threat. Alfred held some comfort in one last fact. A Nation can only die at the hands of another Nation, not a human. But he wasn't about to tell _her_ this. Her eyes were sharp and hard as ice. They were also narrow, like a cat's.

"I'm Alfred; what's your name?"

"Oh shut up." The stranger spat.

"Well I have to call you something! Or maybe I don't, because you're leaving right now."

"Don't tell me where I go."

"Get out!" Alfred tried to pull her out by her wrist, but instead, she leaned over and bit the hell out of his arm. Yes, she _bit_ him. This lady surely was an oddball. "GAH! Get off me! Get off me!" Alfred found himself begging for release after the mystery woman trapped him in an excruciatingly painful joint lock. His arm was bleeding from the savage bite. _What is wrong with this lady?_

"Not until you come with me to the Statue of Liberty!"

"WHAT?"

"You heard me! Or would you rather I break your shoulder?" She pushed harder on his arm.

"OKAY! OKAYOKAYOKAY! I'll take you!"

* * *

><p>And that's how America and this crazy psycho ended up at the Statue of Liberty at one o' clock in the morning. "Why are we here, again?"<p>

"Get me to her hand!"

"Huh?"

"I don't like to repeat things! And you know what happens when I don't like something!"

"Okay, all right, I'll get you to her hand." Alfred stopped and pondered for a minute. _How on Earth am I supposed to get up there? There's a way to her crown, but not her hand… I think the crown will suffice_. "All right, time to get up there." They ran to the door, but the guards stopped them.

"The Statue is closed right now. Come back tomorrow."

"Could you please make an exception?" Alfred glanced back at the psycho, who was glaring daggers at him. "It's urgent…"

"No." The guard spat.

Alfred and the psycho found themselves standing by the water's edge. Alfred was trying to avoid the psycho's glare at all costs and she was trying to strangle him with it. Seriously, if looks could kill, America would be dead and this whole patch of land would find itself blown to the stars.

"Get me up there." She hissed.

"Uh… err…"

"Fine. I'll deal with you _later_." The woman charged at the two guards.

"Ah! Don't do that!" Alfred yelled, but she either didn't hear or didn't care. He would go with the latter. Two swift kicks to the guards' head knocked them out, or maybe dead. She ran inside, and two minutes later, she was at the crown. Alfred thought he saw the glass break and the woman leap from the head to the shoulder. He was so tired; he really couldn't think straight. It wasn't until a yell sounded that he realized that he was not hallucinating.

"I got it!"

"Got what?" Suddenly, she lost her balance and slipped. She landed in the water with a splash. Alfred waited for her to resurface, but she didn't. Not even bubbles showed. _I wonder if I should save her… She'll just slap me again. Then again, I can't just let her die…_ Alfred jumped in the freezing cold water, completely waking up, and dove after her. She didn't fall far. She was actually starting to rise up, but Alfred just picked up the pace. After a few seconds, she 'came back to life'. And Alfred was right about the slap. _SLAP!_ _Right on cue._


	3. Strange Findings: Germany & Italy

**Strange Findings: Germany and Italy**

Germany and Italy staggered back to their room. They were both worn out and beaten from that torturous world meeting. Germany knew it was that Russian idiot who started it all. He thought that since the one who kept everything in 'order' was missing in action, everyone would be free to say his or her speech and breech the eight-minute limit. Let me tell you something; Germany isn't the best peacekeeper. Remember those three fights that broke out? It's not an understatement to say that Germany was the start of one of them. Spain and Romano began another, while Switzerland started the last, ironically. And Germany could've sworn that same meeting happened yesterday.

"_Ve~_ Germany, I want to-" Italy tried to lighten the mood as the two of them entered the German's room.

"Why are you here?" Germany cut him off rather abruptly while flicking the lights on. Italy's face saddened. Germany always brushed that change of expression off, thinking it was natural. However, his words stung the happy-go-lucky man more than he knew.

"I don't understand…"

"Why aren't you in your own room? Why are you in mine?" Just as soon as it left, Italy's jolly attitude returned.

"Oh right!" Feliciano exclaimed. He ran into the bathroom. _I hope he didn't use up all the soap like _last_ time…_ Ludwig almost groaned out loud at that memory. Bubbles and soapsuds were _everywhere._ Seriously, the poor German would open the pantry and find that all of the food was soggy and bitter. The hallway where Feliciano played was an apocalypse of pink, yellow, and brown bubbles. The sound of the bathroom door creaking open shook him out of his flashback. What Ludwig saw next shocked him more than anything he had ever experienced with this awkward young Italian. "Look, Germany! We had twins!"

* * *

><p>To say he was shocked is a major understatement. It was like he had five heart attacks and one of Japan's 'Pokémon' had just shown up at his door with a package of Russian 'XL' condoms, walked up to him, and slapped him in the face with one. And here it was; Feliciano had both his hands behind two kids' backs, guiding them to Ludwig. They were identical; they had the same height, weight, and physical appearance. They had short yellow hair and they were 5-year-olds. The boy in Feliciano's right hand wore a pollen yellow t-shirt with a navy blue stripe across the shoulders, while the one in the left hand had a navy t-shirt with a pollen yellow stripe across the shoulders. They were both wearing blue jeans and navy Converse shoes. They both had the same shade of brown in their eyes that Italy had.<p>

"Italy, tell me I'm dreaming."

"Nope! We had twins! And they came with names! This one's Ni!" Feliciano motioned to the twin with the yellow shirt. "And this one is Nao!" He motioned to the other one.

"Hey Daddy?" The five-year-old called Ni started.

"What is it?" Feliciano asked.

"If you're our Daddy, who's our Mommy?"

"That's an easy one!" And to Ludwig's ultimate horror, the insane Italian turned to him. "Kids, this is Germany, and he is officially your mommy!"

"But aren't mommies usually g-?" Suddenly, Ni vanished in a puff of pink smoke. Ludwig's jaw dropped. That same puff of smoke exploded on top of the bed. There was the yellow-shirted kid saying, "Daddy, take me to the Coliseum!" He vanished again. Suddenly, he reappeared on top of Feliciano's head. "On second thought, I want Mommy to take me to Berlin!" Ludwig could only stand and stare.

"Don't worry, Mommy!" The German turned to Nao in yet more shock. _He just did__ a __perfect__ imitation of my 'crazy boss'!_ "We have super powers!" Only one thing found its way to Ludwig's mouth at that moment.

"ITALY!"

"_Ve~_ Germany, don't shout! You'll scare the kids!" Soon enough, the dizziness took over the blond German as he welcomed the temporary comfort of unconsciousness.


	4. Strange Findings: Japan

**Strange Findings: Japan**

The plan was simple. He'd spend this last night in his hotel room and then catch the next flight back to Japan. Kiku undressed, climbed into bed, and promptly fell asleep. The next morning came as a huge relief. He'd finally be able to get back to his country, where he belonged, and away from all of this madness. The World Meeting yesterday didn't do much for his sanity. At least three physical fights started yesterday, and they each lasted some… half an hour, maybe. He was still sore from that ruckus he and Belarus got into. And that was a strange oddity all by itself. Belarus rarely paid attention to anyone besides Russia, or the people who threatened their relationship…

He got up and got dressed into his white military uniform, and started to walk out the door, dragging his small suitcase behind him. It turned out that Lithuania had the same idea.

"Hey, where are you going, Japan?" He called. Japan turned around. He noticed that Lithuania wasn't holding a suitcase.

"I'm going back to Japan. The World Meeting's over, remember?" Japan replied.

"Uh… it is?" Japan's eyes widened.

"It happened yesterday, right?"

"No, we got here yesterday. Are you feeling alright?"

"Kolkolkolkol…." Lithuania whirled around to face his tormentor. Russia's dark aura was dancing like flames around his body, and his eyes were glowing, probably with the fury of hell. Lithuania let out a shriek and ducked behind Japan, only to trip over his suitcase. Russia glided over to Japan and hissed, "Give Lithuania back and I _won't_ pound your face to dust… Not yet, at least." And much to Lithuania's terror, Japan stepped aside. He went back to his room to put his suitcase down.

"I could've sworn this meeting happened yesterday…" He was interrupted by yet another scream, but it came from Russia this time. He turned around to see the end of a pink scarf running around the corner, away from none other than Belarus.

"Come back, big brother!" She commanded.

"Go away!" Came Russia's terrified reply. Japan made his way to the conference room on the top floor. _What World Conference? Didn't this happen yesterday? And the day before that?_ Japan froze. How could the same meeting happen twice in a row? But the more he thought about it, the more confused he got. So instead, he decided to go to this World Conference and report his 'findings'. There he could see if anyone else was experiencing the same 'deja-vu' that he was. He entered the elevator and it took him to the top floor. He went inside the meeting room where almost everyone else was. There were still a few vacant seats. He took his place at the table next to China and South Korea. Then Russia flew in. He immediately ducked behind the door. And who else came in next, but his crazy sister?

"Big brother! Where are you?" She demanded. In her hand laid Russia's faucet pipe. Lichtenstein leaned over to Switzerland.

"I thought her dream was to _marry_ Russia, not to maim him…" Switzerland just shrugged. Belarus turned to the soft whimpering of her brother behind the door.

"COME OUT!" She ordered, swinging the pipe behind her to wind up for a blow that would break the door off its hinges. Only problem was that England walked in right in the line of fire. The pipe went backwards right into his nose.

"GAH!" He exclaimed as he was knocked backwards, a river of blood coming from his poor nose. He put a finger on it, which he immediately regretted doing.

"Little sister!" Belarus turned to face Ukraine. "Apologize to England!"

"Like an apology will cut it…" England muttered.

"Sorry…" Belarus growled. Then she turned to the obstacle blocking her way from Russia. She was about to beat the door down when Switzerland shouted,

"Sit down _at once_ or I'll beat you with my peace-prize!" Belarus bit back a retort, but she knew better than to pick a fight during these meetings. Japan sighed. He predicted that this meeting would be the worst of them all. As soon as Belarus took her seat, everyone went silent. France, Germany, Italy, and America had yet to arrive. Make that Germany, Italy, and America. France just walked right in.

"_Bonjour mon pays compatriotes!_" He exclaimed while striking a pose that only he could come up with. Almost everyone sweat dropped as France put one foot on his chair.

"What did he say?" England leaned over to Spain while holding his nose with a tissue.

"Why are you asking me?" Spain snorted.

"Where's Germany? It's not like him to be late," France asked, after his 'moment of glory' was up.

"Uh… did I miss something?" Everyone turned around to see America.

"No, not really," England replied.

"_Oui_, we're still waiting on Germany and Italy." France added.

"That's strange…" America paused. The two nations just stared at him in response. The room went silent, waiting for someone to say something. And unfortunately, Romano took that privilege.

"Where the hell is that potato bastard?" He grumbled. Japan gave him a sideways glance.

"I think we should take advantage of this situation, _da_?" Came the insane Russian's suggestion. Lithuania began to cower at the sight of his tormentor's dark and evil aura.

"Take advantage as in how?" France asked, a glint of curiosity in his eyes.

"Don't ask him!" England shouted.

"Germany is not present at the moment, and he is not here to nag us unnecessarily. So now we can get all those happy little feelings out that we've been nurturing for eons. _Da_?" Russia suggested. A dead and eerie silence swallowed the room as each Country began to let Russia's comment soak in. _Oh no, not again…_ Japan dreaded the thought. Apparently, America felt the same way. He looked quite unsure of himself, and that was very out-of-character for 'the hero'.

* * *

><p>Five minutes later…<p>

Everything flew into utter chaos as the nations argued and bickered with each other. England, America, and France were all yelling at each other; China was fruitlessly trying to split them up. Poland was attempting to defend Lithuania from the creepy-ness that is Russia. In the end, the pipe-wielding maniac found himself running away from his crazy sister, Belarus. Canada ended up trampled many times. Mexico was pestering anyone and everyone to buy a 'present' coming straight from Mexico City. And Japan just wanted everyone to shut up.

That's when the doors flew open. There stood Germany and Italy, in semi-dirty suits, panting. The entire room went silent. "It was his idea!" A hand flew over and pointed at Russia. A hard, cold glare met that unfortunate Country.

"What is going on here?" Germany demanded, although he didn't need an answer.

"Dude, why are you so late?" America inquired.

"That is of personal matter. Now everyone, back to your seats! We've wasted enough time already!" Everyone scrambled back to his or her seats in a hurry. From then on, everything proceeded… but not as smoothly as Germany would've hoped. It all went downhill when Italy raised a white flag. Japan looked up. _How typical… Wait, what's that?_ He squinted. A voice sounded as it read the words scribbled on the flag.

"They're… both… boys…?"

"Yup!" Italy exclaimed. Suddenly, Germany slammed his fist into Italy's mouth. "_Ve_~ Germany, that hurt!" He yelped, but he was muffled by Germany's hand.

"I told you not to speak of them, _dummkopf!_"

"Speak of what?" Japan asked.

"Mommy, Daddy, Ni vanished again!" Everyone turned to Japan.

"I didn't say anything!" The country exclaimed.

"Mommy, Daddy," The looks didn't stop.

"It's not me!"

"Nao, go away!" Germany snapped. Everyone looked up at the doorway to see a little blond kid in a blue t-shirt with a yellow stripe across the shoulders.

"_Ve~_ Germany and I had twins!" Italy gleefully exclaimed when Germany's hand was removed from his pie hole.

"_Nein!_ We did not! I have no idea where these kids came from!"

"You don't have to be embarrassed, Germany," France interrupted. Germany turned. France shrunk back. He had a fear of this man for a reason. "I'm just saying it's cute that you and Italy decided to…"

"Don't you know that men can't get pregnant?" Germany yelled.

"Adoption is always an answer…"

"SHUT UP YOU FROG!" England cursed. And that's how fight #1 started. It was a mess of punches, kicks, and lots of broken chairs.

"It's so nice to see everyone getting to know each other…" Russia beamed proudly.

"Want to get to know me?" He suddenly felt two feminine hands grab him from behind.

"LET GO!"

Before Japan could register what he was doing, he fled the room. "Japan!" Germany called. "You can't just leave!"

"Restroom…" Came the country's lame one-worded excuse.

"This is why you go _before_ these meetings!" Germany lectured. And you know it really makes you feel like a _dummkopf_ when the person you're shouting at isn't even listening.

* * *

><p>All Japan could focus on doing is escaping the madness that he only had to deal with once a year… When he reached a safe enough distance, he breathed a sigh of relief. He felt like collapsing right then and there, but he knew as soon as he did, he wouldn't get up. So instead, he took a seat, leaning against the wall.<p>

"Hi!" A high-pitched voice exclaimed. Japan jumped. Someone found him! He looked up to see a sea-green haired woman. Her hair came to her ears, neatly cropped, like a man's. Her eyes were red. There was a small ponytail spouting out the back of her head. She was wearing a navy sweater and a knee-length skirt. She also had plain white knee-high socks and black Mary Jane's. She looked like a stereotypical schoolgirl, except for the sea-green hair. Her skin was whiter than Germany's, if that was even possible.

"How'd you get in here?" Was all Japan could say.

"Uh… the door." The lady explained as if it was the simplest thing in the world.

"Why are you here?"

"I have my reasons. I know you're Japan. But you don't know me!" She kept on speaking in this singsong kind of tone.

"Shouldn't you be in school?"

"School? No, I graduated from college last year! My name is Kijutsu-Shi, but you can call me KJ."

"Kijutsu-Shi… doesn't that mean 'the illusionist'?"

"It sure does!" KJ replied while striking a 'France' kind of pose. She reached into a pocket and pulled out a deck of cards. "Pick a card!" Japan looked up at her eyes. They were smiling. Japan decided to humor her and picked a card. It turned out to be a five of clubs. "Five of clubs!"

"Lucky guess."

"No wait– two of hearts!" Suddenly, the card in Japan's hand changed into a two of hearts. "Three of spades." The card changed.

"How did you do that?" Japan asked.

"You name a card."

"Uh… ten of diamonds?" The card in his hand changed. "How did you do that?" He asked again.

"I'm Kijutsu-Shi!" KJ exclaimed proudly. Suddenly, she began to glow pink. When the pink glow disappeared, Japan was staring into a mirror version of himself. "Well," the mirror image said. The voice was still high-pitched and feminine. "I can't disguise my voice, and if something touches me, the illusion wears off."

"I would feel more comfortable if you changed back…" Japan stuttered.

"Oh, okay." And KJ did just that. She took a seat next to him. She fidgeted slightly. Suddenly, she sprung up. "Hey I just remembered something!" Japan jumped. "Take me to your nuclear plant!"

"Why?"

"Because I told you to!"

"KJ-san, the nuclear plant is in bad condition. A tsunami hit me about six months ago, and I'm still recovering from the events. My people are still suffering."

"Yeah, well if I don't get what I need, your people will suffer even more."

"What do you mean?"

"Well, you're not going to believe this, but~"

"Hey!" Came a voice. KJ, alarmed, changed into a fly to avoid unwanted attention. Japan stood up and looked around the corner. There came Switzerland. "Germany wants you back in there, _now_."

"_Hai_," Japan replied and started to walk with him. Then the fly started to buzz around his ears.

"Meet me back in your room after the meeting." It said.

"Room 206." Japan whispered. Suddenly, a rolled up piece of paper flew by his face. He looked up to see Switzerland attacking the fly with his peace prize certificate. "What are you doing?"

"That's a fly!"

"Well don't kill it!" Switzerland stopped and stared at Japan. Nobody had ever _not_ wanted a fly to die… Japan quickly came up with an excuse. "It's not nice to kill things." There was a pause.

"Whatever. Let's go." Forgetting the fly, Switzerland proceeded onward, with Japan right on his tail.


	5. Strange Findings: England & France

**Strange Findings: England and France**

"Bloody frog!" England snarled at the French man while still holding his broken nose with a bloody handkerchief.

"_Oui_, you are, but what am I?" France retorted. England would've face palmed if it weren't for the throbbing of his nose.

"Yeah, we know you are, but what is _he_?" Came a voice. It was the woman that had been defending the annoying frog and attacking England. She had tangerine-colored hair, light skin, and her eyes were a hazelnut brown. She wore a black blazer, pencil skirt, white t-shirt, and a long scarf with silhouettes of migrating gulls on them. Black high-heels covered her feet. And her mouth was _loud_. Nobody knew how she got there, and frankly, nobody noticed her at all, except for England and France. They were all too busy fighting amongst themselves. Of course, Italy hadn't joined in on any of the fighting, and Germany took that opportunity to tell him how the 'baby machine' works, and that boys do not have one, no matter how gay.

"Japan!" Came Germany's big booming voice. Everyone stopped fighting… for the moment. Japan and Switzerland came back in. "What took you so long?"

"That is of personal matter." Japan replied, quoting what he had heard just yesterday. For a second, Germany's eyes softened, but it didn't last.

"Take your seat." Japan did as directed. As soon as that was over, everyone went back to whatever ruckus they were involved in. That also included France, England, and the stranger.

"Hey!" England called at the corner after failing to retort after France's some… 30 insults. "You!" The shadow of a man glanced upward. As far as the two countries could tell, this man had forest green spiky hair, light skin, and a forest green suit. He and the mystery woman still had yet to be noticed by anyone other than France and England. "Help me out here!"

After a long pause, the short dark stranger replied with a fierce, yet quiet, "No."

"Why the hell not?"

"Because," France began, but trailed off. He continued after he found the right words. "Women naturally flock me because of my sexy hair…" The stranger in the corner turned his head away, as if saying, _I cannot believe he just said that…_

"Are you implying that there's something wrong with my hair?" _Didn't we have this conversation before?_ England wondered silently, not letting his expression of annoyance and aggravation slide. So in order to calm himself down he said, " Anyway, what's all this nonsense about Germany having kids?"

"He obviously had a transgender operation, duh," The tangerine haired woman snorted.

"Which would make him a 'she'!" France added. The two of them jumped up and high-fived. England face palmed.

"Hey, ZK!" The woman turned to the man in the corner. "Come on, back me up!" He looked up.

"I don't see why I should, Taik." ZK muttered. "Right now, you're acting childish and not much like a leader should."

"Thank you!" England groaned. Taik rolled her eyes.

"So this is gonna be a two-on-two thing, right?" She sneered.

"Only if you provoke it." ZK stepped out of the corner and lifted his head. England got a better look at him. He was wearing a forest green cloak, and a green Robin-Hood kind of hat. His eyes were even darker. Man, this ZK guy has a thing for green… Suddenly, his eyes flashed like electricity. "Which you have."

"Don't start with me, bub!" Taik snapped.

"If this is going to become a full on fight, I suggest we leave…" England whispered to France.

"Oh, _mon ami_, not even that we can agree on."

"Do you _want_ to get beaten to a pulp?" Suddenly, Taik crashed into the two of them, with a Siberian husky biting her arm. "Miss!" England exclaimed.

"ZK, you know better than to attack your boss!" Taik scolded. The husky glared at her as if to say _you started it_. "Alright, that does it!" She grabbed the nearest chair and bashed the dog's head with it.

"Hey, that's animal abuse!" France cried, but to no avail. The dog quickly got off Taik and started to glow green. The glow transformed into a horse. England was officially freaked out. France was having a blast- except for the beating the dog with the chair thing; now that wasn't cool. And how nobody else noticed this animal face off, now that was the million-dollar question.

The horse reared up and tried to kick, but Taik was too fast. She leapt up onto a chair and mounted the horse. It began to buck and snort, but it couldn't throw off its rider. It took about ten straight minutes before the horse collapsed, panting. It glowed green and became a humanoid shape. When the green dissolved, ZK was left in its place.

"Remember that next time you try to outdo your boss!" Taik roared victoriously.

"Wait, she's your boss?" England exclaimed. He glanced at the French man. "Great! I'm back to square one!" A loud, startling, popping sound stopped the four of them in their tracks. Everyone turned to the table where Germany was currently standing, a smoking gun pointed at the ceiling, and a bullet hole right above his head.

"Everyone shut up!" He ordered.

"You know that only works so many times until they just drown you out…" England pointed out.

"Get back to your seats and stop talking!" He waved the gun around. Nobody dared to disobey when a gun was involved. "Now, if you want to go make sure you're prepared, and raise your hand, but do so in a way that does not mock my country's past!" He ordered, redefining his 'meeting rules'. His eyes scanned over the room, not seeming to notice Taik or the rooster she was currently strangling. But that movement betrayed their presence. "You two!" Germany pointed his finger at them. Taik and the rooster looked over, wide-eyed and frozen in place. "Quit goofing off and sit down!"

"How does Germany not realize something strange going on here?" England whispered to no one in particular. Germany's eyes narrowed.

"I think you spoke too soon, _mon ami._" France replied.

"Hey! Who are you two?" Germany pointed to the rooster and orange-haired lady.

"Retreat!" Taik screamed while slamming through the nearest window. Glass shards flew everywhere.

"That's a six story drop!" England exclaimed as he and France peered out the window. Other Nations joined the two of them. They saw Taik grasping the claws of the rooster, who was struggling to fly with both their weight. In the end, Taik only fell about one story. She hit the ground with a thud. When the stars left her brain, she looked up and gave thumbs up.

"I'm okay!" ZK turned into a tiger and she mounted him. She looked up one last time at France and England. "You two owe us a trip to Big Ben and the Palace of Versailles! Giddy up!" She ordered, and the tiger sped away on command. England and France faced each other.

"What was _that _all about?" England asked.

"I don't know…" But just when they thought that this moment couldn't get any more awkward, fate proved them wrong. There, up on the table, was the little boy in the blue shirt having a dance-off with Vietnam. Cue fight no. 2.


	6. Strange Findings: Russia

**Strange Findings: Russia**

Russia was _enjoying_ this. Through his childish insanity, he knew that for some reason, this day kept on repeating itself. And he kept pushing Germany's buttons. He continued to provoke fights, day in and day out, for the last three days. The only thing he didn't enjoy was constantly being tormented by Belarus. But one thing was getting worrisome, other than the fact that she wouldn't let up. The encounters continued to get more and more threatening. Why just today, his crazy sister chased him in here with his own pipe. _Call me crazy, but isn't that taking things just a little too far?_ Russia questioned his sister's motives. He had even overheard Lichtenstein ask Switzerland whether Belarus' dream was to marry him or maim him. Frankly, Russia didn't know which was scarier. Speaking of his beloved pipe, it was still in the clutches of Belarus, with England's blood on it. Yes, she effectively broke England's nose.

"Big brother…" A voice hissed from behind him.

"Stop stalking me!" Russia cried. He was literally on the verge of tears. "I don't want to die!"

"Let us become _one_!" Cold metal slid its way across Russia's throat. If it weren't for Ukraine's scarf wrapped around his neck, Belarus would've crushed his windpipe. Yes, there was definitely something not right about her. I mean, not right for Belarus. We already know the girl's bonkers. Russia leaped out of his seat, literally. The adrenaline was pumping through his veins as he clung to the ceiling chandelier. "Come down from there!" Belarus ordered.

"No!" But before the insane Russian could say anything more, the pipe collided with his shoulder blade. His 'even crazier than him' sister had just thrown his own pipe at him, tearing through his suit and drawing blood. It was official. Belarus no longer wanted to 'become one' with him; she wanted to _kill_ him. Then the chandelier gave away. Russia hit the table with a thud. Belarus scrambled onto it, waving a chair. Cue fight no. three.

Countries were piling on top of each other. Not even Germany's gun could get them to calm down. First of all, they were pretty desensitized, and second of all, Germany knew that this was an annual truce, and woe would be to him should he violate it. But everyone else was violating it right in front of his face. However, nobody was dying. So there was this internal war going on between the devil and angel inside the poor German: To fire or not to fire?

China answered that question for him. A spark went off at the right side of the table. That spark flew upward until it hit the ceiling. Then it exploded. Smoke covered the room. Germany coughed. When the smoke cleared, it revealed the crazy and belligerent Nations _still_ fighting.

"I can't believe that didn't work… aru…_" _China gasped in awe. Then his stare turned into a glare. He picked up six more fireworks and lit them, much to Germany's ultimate horror. Explosions everywhere. Even the drapes were on fire.

"You crazy bastard!" Romano shouted. He performed a miraculous leap across the wide table, tackling China off his feet and onto the floor. Switzerland grabbed Russia's scarf and started beating the flames with it, but to no avail. Soon enough, the scarf caught fire, which caused Switzerland to drop it. That fire spread easily to the flammable rug, then to the wooden chair legs, and the table legs, until the whole room was on fire. Just when all hope seemed lost, a pink circle materialized in the air. A little boy in a yellow and blue shirt, identical to Nao, jumped out of it, holding a fire hose. But of course, fire hoses spray water with incredible pressure. Little Ni soon found himself clinging to the hose for dear life, as it sprayed all over the meeting room.

After what seemed like an hour, the fire hose ran out of water. The Nations would've been swimming in it if they hadn't all leapt up onto the table. They were officially in one big heap with Russia crushed at the very bottom, and France perched at the very top. Oh dear…

* * *

><p>Russia groaned and massaged his head. His badly burned scarf hung loosely around his neck. He had been trapped under that heap for who knows how long. Now all he wanted was to get back to his hotel room and crash. He had even managed to reclaim his pipe in all the confusion. Eventually, everyone began to wriggle free of the pile, but Russia managed to do it first (much to everyone's amazement). Thankfully, he was the first one on the elevator and quickly pressed '3', and just as quickly pressed the 'close' button. The elevator made its smooth sail downward. The doors opened with a 'ding', which was music to Russia's ears. He made it into his hotel room and locked the door. His scarf had been completely scorched; he had marked 'getting even' in his calendar.<p>

He went into the bathroom and prepared to shower, but inside the tub was a humanoid wolf creature. It had large claws, large fangs, and brown-ish gray fur. Currently, it was sleeping and curled up inside the tub, so Russia estimated that if it stood, it would be about seven feet in height. If this were anyone _but_ Ivan, they would've flown out of their hotel room screaming, not bothering to put any clothes on. But this _is_ Ivan. So in his case, he simply picked up the seven-foot tall werewolf creature by the scruff of the neck and dragged it out of the bathroom. Then he proceeded to shower.

The werewolf had awoken by now, right outside the bathroom door. Its ears pricked up. It could hear water running inside the room. _Huh…_ It thought. _Usually people go running and screaming out of the hotel when they find me in their bathtub._ The werewolf waited patiently for the Nation to finish up. The door opened. Ivan had a towel held around his waist. He calmly stepped over the curled-up werewolf and dressed. The werewolf cleared its throat. Ivan paid it no mind. He continued to ignore the wolf as it went up to him and attempted to get his attention. It even considered biting his face off.

"It's rude to ignore someone when they're trying to converse!" The wolf growled. It had a feminine tone to its voice. Therefore, it must be a girl. Ivan didn't care either way. He was now done towel-drying his hair, and went into the refrigerator where some vodka was stored. "Hello?" There was still no response. She tried to strike a deal to get him to reply. "I can offer you protection from Belarus if you take me to your capitol." Still nothing. The wolf decided to take drastic measures. She swiped the vodka bottle from Ivan's hand and smashed it on the floor.

_Bad idea_…

"Kolkolkolkol…" The river of 'kol' streamed from the insane man's mouth as his dark aura began to show. He took out his faucet pipe and proceeded to attack. The wolf ran around, ducking, jumping, and shielding her head from assault, but the crazy Nation just kept on coming. Her mission would have to wait; right now, she had to escape. She ripped the door off its hinges and sprinted down the hallway on all fours.

"I'll come back at a better time!" She called as she jumped out the window. Ivan's dark aura was still present as he watched her leave with an ominous glare.


	7. Strange Findings: China

**Strange Findings: China**

That meeting was _harsh_. China didn't know how many more of those he had in him. In an attempt to get people to calm down, he had lit fireworks at least seven times today. The drapes actually caught on fire at one time. And he definitely knew he'd be feeling Romano's blows tomorrow. That lady and rooster bit didn't help soothe his nerves one bit. His plan was simple. He'd just get back into his hotel room, eat dinner, get ready for bed, and then sleep in it. The next day, he'd high tail it to the next flight to China. He had reached the elevator and was waiting for it to drop off some of the other Nations at their floors. Behind him stood Japan and Poland. The doors finally opened. All three of them boarded the elevator. China pressed '2', Poland pressed '5', and Japan just waited. The elevator went down one floor and the doors opened. Poland stepped out. Now it was just Japan and China left. The doors closed and the elevator went down, but suddenly, it jerked to a stop. The two countries smacked heads at the sudden loss of momentum.

"Watch it, aru!" China growled while rubbing his forehead. Japan just glared. Ever since the events of WWII, the two of them hadn't been and still aren't on good terms. China turned to the elevator buttons and pressed '2' again. However, something completely frightening happened. The elevator started to creak and groan. Suddenly, the sound of a cord snapping echoed through the room.

"Jump!" Japan ordered. "Don't ask!" The two of them jumped just in time. The elevator hit the bottom with a deafening _thud_. Japan and China collided with the ground. They were both uneasy, and it wasn't just each other that the feeling stemmed from. China felt it and so did Japan. The two of them exchanged knowing glances. Forming a silent truce, the two of them nodded and they worked together to force the elevator doors open. But they weren't physically strong enough to do it themselves. China tried to pull a piece of the elevator off to use as a wedge, but he was struggling. It hurt to watch. So Japan simply pressed the 'open' button, and guess what; the doors opened. China glared at him. He shrugged.

The two of them turned their attention to the room in front of them. These World Meeting buildings had ben built in every Country known to man, and they had all been built under the surveillance of three or more countries, one of them being from the G8. And nobody had ever built _this _room. Not even America would be this secretive. China looked at the buttons on the elevator. There were only seven floors, including the Conference Room. But that elevator had fallen much more than seven floors, not to mention, they were on the fifth floor when this all happened.

"China-san, we shouldn't be here…" Japan cautioned as the two of them stepped into the poorly lit room. The floors, walls, and ceilings were made of shiny metal, which reflected a hazy mirror image of the two countries. Double beam lights found their way down the hall. They were all off, except for one, which was starting to flicker off. The rectangular room was lined with wooden crates. At the end of the crates, the room split off into two pathways, one headed right, the other headed left.

"What should we do?" China asked. "Should we split up, or check both pathways together? Aru?"

"I vote we leave and report this to the other countries." Japan replied. China looked at him. He nodded. The two of them made for the elevator. Suddenly, a searing pain hit China from behind. He cried out, and Japan whirled around, but whatever had struck China disappeared. No, not disappeared, moved… behind Japan. He didn't realize it until too late. A sharp pain hit him in his lower back. He could feel something sharp, like a bear trap sinking into his flesh. But this wasn't just any ordinary attack; Japan passed out. And nations don't fall to just anyone.

* * *

><p>China woke up in a very dark and dusty room. He was lying on his left side. There were no lights. It took a while for his eyes to adjust, and even when they did, he couldn't see clearly. A sound shifted behind him. He jumped up, but the stars rushed to his head.<p>

"So they got you, too?" A voice asked. It was a feminine voice, but it was low. In this light, China could barely make out a gray-ish tan colored blazer, pencil skirt, high heels, and scarf. A white shirt rested under the blazer. It was neatly tucked into the skirt, which came right above the knee. He couldn't make out the color of her hair, but it flowed loosely around her shoulders.

"Who got us? Where are we? Who are you? What happened to Japan? Where is he? What did they do to him?" China started to flood the stranger with panicked questions (sliding a couple aru's in there too). The questions about Japan brought up the bond that the two of them shared before Japan stabbed him in the back. His wound was still quite fresh. Wounds inflicted on a Nation by another Nation took much longer to heal than ones inflicted by other means. Almost all of the European Countries still had their wounds from 70 years ago.

"Shut up." The voice snapped. This tone of voice certainly caught the Nation off guard. "You're making my eardrums bleed, you bastard." China couldn't see it, but he could sense it. She was glaring daggers at him. He dared not speak. "I know who you are; all of us do. We know that the humans have personas of the Countries, and that they embody the worlds past, down to the last detail." China shuddered at the realization that this woman- a complete stranger- knew all of this. "I am Kura, leader of Kura Psychic Organization, and we've been looking for you."


	8. Escalation

**Escalation**

"_Ve~_, Ni, we can go to the Coliseum today!" Italy exclaimed happily while the little boy danced circles around him. Germany wasn't present at the moment, and neither was Nao; they had gone out to 'ask around'. Well, if you asked Italy, he'd most likely say that they're flirting with girls or something and making Wurst. Italy took Ni's hand and guided him out of their hotel room. They made it to the elevator, but when they pressed the button, nothing happened. Italy pressed the button again, but still, all was quiet. "What's going on?" He wondered.

"Is something wrong with the elevator?" Ni asked. Italy shrugged. He looked around. There, next to the elevator doors, was another door that led to some stairs.

"We'll go that way!" Ni's face brightened and the two of them skipped over to the door. Italy pushed it open while Ni made a hop-skip-and-a-jump through. If only Italy was that graceful. His clumsy feet got him an express trip down the stairs. Ni's eyes widened as Italy landed on the next landing with an uncoordinated splat. Basically, he was sprawled all over the platform. But being the happy-go-lucky person he was, Italy simply popped right back up and shouted, "I'm okay!"

"Daddy!" Ni called. Italy looked up at his 'son'. "Watch this!" Ni grabbed the railing and slid down. Of course, Italy was too dull to get off the line of fire, and Ni crashed right into him. "Oops… Sorry!"

"It's all right! Come on! The next flight to my home Country leaves in two minutes!"

"But how are we going to get there in two minutes?"

"Germany is smart! He'll think of something!"

"But Mommy isn't here…"

"I'm not your mommy, _dummkopf_!" Came a low, rough voice. Italy and Ni turned to see Germany.

"_Ve~_ Germany!" Italy joyously exclaimed. He literally bounced over to his friend. But his happy face vanished when he saw that Nao was not with him. "Where's Nao?" He asked. Germany gave a light shrug. "Germany, you were supposed to watch him! What if Nao gets hurt, or worse?" Germany looked at the Italian's face. It was stitched with worry. For a split second, Germany felt guilty.

"Italia…" He whispered.

"What?" Italy's expression suddenly changed to blank. _What did you call me? _A fragment of a memory found its way to Italy's eyes. _His first kiss, his first love… His radiant yellow hair, and his ice-blue eyes always shone of nobility, but underneath all of that, he was warm and fuzzy._

"Taly! Italy!" A finger snapped in front of his face. Italy regained his senses. Those ice-blue eyes and that radiant yellow hair was staring him down, but they weren't _him_… "Italy!"

"What is it?"

"Don't space out like that!" Germany scolded. "Why are you here? We have a meeting to prepare for."

"_Ve~_, another one?" Italy groaned. Germany's eyes broke contact as he began to confess his suspicions.

"Something has been happening, Italy. I can't explain how, but this meeting has happened four days in a row, counting this one. And each time, it gets more and more chaotic. Now Italy, tell me if you've noticed this!"

"Huh?" Italy was confused. "I'm not sure if I…"

"How can you not notice this?" Germany started to shake the Nation by his shoulders. "How?" Italy didn't say anything. Germany quickly regained composure. Something wasn't right about Italy. He seemed more spaced out than normal. Germany tried not to let his worry show. Then his eye caught sight of the clock. "We're late!" He thundered. He grabbed Italy by his collar and started to drag him to the elevator. He pressed the button, but nothing happened.

"Germany, the elevator doesn't work!" Italy interrupted.

"Why the hell not?"

"I don't know…"

"We don't have time for this. We'll take the stairs!" He started to drag Italy up the stairs. Ni followed, but a flash of pink light stopped the three of them in their tracks. Ni was gone. "Not again!"

Just as Germany was about to dash after the kid (he frankly had no idea where the little vermin went), footsteps colliding with metal and panting echoed through the stairwell. There, barreling down the stairs came Lithuania. He collapsed at the two Nations' feet.

"What is it?" Germany demanded.

"It's… it's…" Lithuania panted.

"Tell me!"

"It's Iraq and Vietnam!" He managed between pants. Germany narrowed his eyes. "They're fighting like animals, and no one can stop them!" Without another word, the German bolted up the stairs.

"_Ve~_ Germany!" Italy called.

* * *

><p>The World Conference room was in terror like it never had been before. France and England, the two most belligerent Nations, had stopped arguing completely and bore witness to the two countries that rarely interacted, now literally tearing each other apart. Blood was oozing out of multiple wounds, and decorating the surfaces of the room. Many chairs were broken, after being thrown and used as bats.<p>

Germany flew in, and not a second too late. "What is going on here?" He demanded, although he needed no explanation. He jumped onto the table where the two Countries now were, and proceeded to grab Vietnam. "Someone take Iraq!" He ordered. Scotland reacted immediately and hooked his arms around Iraq's waist.

"Calm down!" He ordered. There was no humane reply that found its way to the Nation's mouth- only a roar of pure hatred and bloodlust. _What in God's name is going on here?_ Germany's mind was racing, and it took all his mental focus to restrain the bleeding Nation in his arms. But not even that was enough. Vietnam brought her foot down onto his, and he let out a startled yell. The Country broke free, and charged at Iraq and Scotland. Iraq broke free as well, and the vicious battle raged onward. If Germany didn't know better, he'd have thought the two of them were possessed. The next thing he saw would have changed his perspective on life forever, if the events of World War II never occurred. With one swift movement, both ripped out a shard of glass from their wounds and slit the other's throats. The room fell deathly silent now. The only trace of sound was the pained gasps of the two Nations that had just struck each other down. And one after the other, they collapsed, their glassy eyes staring at one another, but seeing nothing. As if afraid to make even the slightest movement, no other living soul dared to even breathe. Not even the talkative and irritating America dared comment on what had just taken place before his eyes. Germany was horrified, and nobody was speaking. He decided to take that honor. His head turned towards the nearest Country, in this case, England, but spoke to no one in particular.

"What… happened?" Each word was choked out of his very being. The response he got wasn't at all what he wanted.

"_Ve_~!" In flew Italy, holding Ni close to his chest, barreling straight towards his former ally. He stopped in his tracks when he saw the gruesome remains. Not even his innocent and naïve nature dared let him speak. He couldn't even lift his hand to cover Ni's eyes. Germany narrowed his eyes.

"What happened? Someone answer me!" He ordered. The only one to move was England, and it was just a simple shift of his head.

"They…" Germany turned to Poland. "They just… leapt at each other… With no warning…"

"Start from the beginning." And for once, only one Country spoke at a time.

"We were all here, gathered at the table, waiting for you and Italy." England started.

"When the two of them… jumped up… and started yelling accusations at each other." Poland added.

"The argument got more and more heated…"

"Why didn't anyone stop them _before_ this happened?" Germany would've said _dummkopf_, but this situation simply wouldn't allow it.

"We…" Spain was the one to speak up. "We didn't think it would escalate that much…"

"Their words got more and more offensive, when they both just snapped… at the same time… they went for each other, like animals." England took back the conversation. "Lithuania volunteered to alert you, and the rest you know." Germany lowered his head. He was lost for words, and not in the good way. Then he remembered something. He shifted his gaze upward.

"Have any of you noticed that this day repeats itself?" He asked the entire room. An air of confusion spread across the room, except for five other Countries. Their faces were stitched with the expression of knowing. Germany turned to those seven.

"America?" He asked. The Country gave a silent nod. "England?" England did the same. "Russia? France?" Those two just continued to stare at him, but he could read everything in their eyes. "Italia?" Germany turned towards Italy. Italy's face snapped towards his. But instead of the expression of knowing, horror, or confusion, his face expressed nothing but longing. "Italy!"

"_Ve~!_ Yes, I've noticed!"

"Japan?" He turned back to the other five Countries standing before him. He froze. "Japan?" He called. But this time, his voice changed from desperation to confusion and worry.

"Germany, dude, what's wrong?" America finally spoke.

"Where is Japan?" Germany demanded.

"Now that you mention it…" England started while glancing around. "I haven't seen him since yesterday's meeting… Personally, I blame the frog." Before France could interrupt, Germany thundered above them.

"Do not fight! This is not the time for that! Did you not see what happened just _minutes_ ago?" The two Nations calmed down. Their shoulders relaxed.

"And China? What about China?" Russia asked. And if it weren't for the fact that China was nowhere to be found, they would've all assumed that Russia was indeed the stalker that the Chinese man clamed he was.


	9. Questions, Answers, and More Questions

**Questions Lead to Answers, Which Only Lead to More Questions**

The Meeting was called off for that day, but Germany ordered the present Nations of the G8 to stay. Everyone else flooded out of the room, not one daring to glance at the bloody mess that lay in a heap on the table.

"What do we do about the bodies?" America asked.

"I think…" England put his finger to his chin. "I think the only way we can cover this up is to burn the bodies, and call a demolition team to destroy the building." Some Nations' eyes widened.

"The whole building?" Italy asked.

"Wouldn't it be easier to just paint over it?" France added with a dangerous glint in his eyes.

"No, and even if we did, you _most definitely_ wouldn't be choosing the color, bloody frog." England spat.

"England is right," Germany interrupted. "The humans can't know about our existence. If even a word of this gets out, there will be investigations, meetings, and possibly arrests. That would attract too much attention to us."

"But we interact with the people all the time!" Italy exclaimed. France nodded behind him, about to say something, but the German cut him off.

"That's different, _dummkopf._"

"We work with the military and the Government."

"Yes, but those people are special." England explained. "They are authorized to know our secret. But the common human is not, and when word gets out, it spreads like wildfire. Especially with modern technology."

"Fine then, it's decided. We will burn the bodies and destroy the building." Germany concluded.

"But what will we report?" Russia asked.

"Weak internal structure, danger of collapse." The other Nations nodded, satisfied with the result. Germany looked down.

"There's something I gotta' say." America spoke up. He was unusually calm. "A strange woman came into my house four days ago. Tony found her. She demanded I take her to the Statue of Liberty, and I did. But she fell off, please don't ask, and she lost whatever she was looking for in the river." A look of recognition passed through all the Countries' faces.

"_Ve~_" Italy exclaimed. "Ni and Nao wanted us to take them to the Coliseum and Berlin!"

"Who're Ni and Nao?" America asked.

"The two five-year-old _dummkopfs_ with yellow hair. Nao wears a blue shirt and Ni wears a yellow shirt." Germany explained.

"Germany, don't call them that!" Italy squealed.

"Germany," France interrupted. "Do you remember that orange haired lady and the atrocious green man yesterday?"

"_Ja_, I think I know what you're talking about."

"Well they came back."

"Their names are Taik and ZK." England corrected. "And ZK was sitting on my bed when I returned to my room. He told me to take him to Big Ben."

"And Taik ordered me to take her to Versailles. Which I didn't really mind, because my palace is truly magnificent, _oui_?" England looked like he wanted to strangle that man. Germany sighed. He turned to Russia.

"What?" He asked nonchalantly.

"Have you noticed anything or anyone out of the ordinary?"

"Well, there _was_ a doggie that was sleeping in my bathtub!" He said while smiling. Then his dark aura began to swell. "But he was a _bad_ doggie and so I had to 'punish' him a little…"

"Um… err… what kind of dog was it?" England asked, almost afraid to say anything more.

"Oh that's easy. He was a she-wolf/man."

"Well, if it's a she-wolf, why did you call it a 'he'?"

"You mean a werewolf?" America interrupted. Russia nodded like a little child who'd just been given candy. "Is he… err… _she_ still there?"

"_Nyet._ He ran." Suddenly, the Russian's face turned from childish to sad. "He ran from me!" And then to anger, "He ran!"

"Calm down, Russia!" The other three former Allied Forces exclaimed. Germany cleared his throat. All of the Nations turned to him again.

"If all of us have encountered these strangers, then it is very likely that Japan and China have, too."

"And they're missing." Russia pointed out, seeming to have calmed down. England kept a close eye on him for safe measure. "Does anyone know where they are?"

"Well now, they wouldn't be 'missing' if we knew, would they, you commie bastard!" America snapped.

"Shut up!" Came a voice.

"China? You're back?" Russia's excited voice echoed through the room.

"No, you idiot."

"Spain?" Italy spoke up.

"I'm not China; I'm not Spain; I'm me, and Mommy was supposed to be _watching_ me!" Everyone looked behind the German to see none other than Nao. "Speaking of Spain," he continued in Germany's voice. "Why is there a turtle on your back?" With that, Germany twisted around, but neither his eyes nor his hands could reach the baby reptile clinging to his jacket. A Nation behind him snickered. His glare went accusingly towards America.

"It wasn't me, dude, even though it _is_ pretty funny!" The next person to glare at was France. And he was caught red-handed… err… mouthed. And if glares could kill, France would be dead nine times over. Ignoring the frog, Germany turned back to Nao.

"Nao, I need to ask you something." He said.

"Okay, mommy."

"First of all, stop calling me that!"

"That's not a question, mommy." Germany resisted the urge to facepalm.

"Are any of the people that my fr… fr…" He couldn't say 'friend' no matter how hard he tried. Nao gave him a strange look. "That these other Countries have seen, connected in some way?"

"You bet they are!" Ni jumped out of Italy's grasp. "You see, my full name is Randamu Ni Idó, which means~" He exploded in a puff of smoke.

"Not again!" Germany growled.

"It means 'move randomly'." Nao explained. "It's a very fitting name for my brother."

"So basically…" England began. "Ni is able to teleport?"

"That's basically it, other than the fact that he has no control over when it will happen and where it will sent him. That's why Taik put a tracking chip in the base of his skull, like a microchip. But only _she_ has the GPS tracking device."

"Let me see if I have this right." France interrupted. "Taik is the sexy lady with orange hair, right?"

"You call her _that_ one more time, and I'll personally put your foot where your mouth is!"

"So what's the connection between you two?" Germany took back the conversation before it could progress any further.

"Oh, it's not just us. You see Ni, Taik, ZK, Iwa, Ken, and I are all part of the Taikiyoko Psychic Organization." Suddenly, Nao slammed his hands over his mouth, his eyes wide in fear.

"What is it?"

"I shouldn't have said that! Boss doesn't like it when I say things without her permission!"

"It's fine, Nao." Everyone turned around to see the source of the new voice. There stood Taik, ZK, and Ni. Taik had Ni in some kind of choke chain, probably some hopeless effort to keep him from teleporting. Taik's eyes turned towards the World 8, Germany in particular. "I am Taikiyoko, head of the Taikiyoko Psychic Organization, and we've been looking for you."


	10. A Question In Disguise

**How To Ask For Help?**

China was kneeling on the dark, dusty ground, clutching the metal bars of his prison cell. He was still locked away in this secret underground room. This lady named 'Kura' was sitting on a bench behind him. And she was no help at all. She was actually revealing more of a bossy, jerk-off nature.

"Can't you push any harder?" She snarled.

"I'm trying, aru! Why don't you help out?" China growled back in between shoves. "And why are you even making me do this? It's hopeless! Aru!"

"Nothing's hopeless when I'm breathing!" Kura leaped up out of her seat and shot her fist in the air.

"These are iron bars, aru!"

"Then man through them! You are a man, right?"

"That's offensive!"

"I don't care! Boys shouldn't have long hair!"

"And _gentlemen_ don't insult others! Aru!"

"And what's up with that 'aru' thing? It, like, doesn't mean anything, does it?" China opened his mouth to speak, but Kura cut him off. "You say _one more word_ and I will personally rip your tongue out."

* * *

><p>Well, China was officially being freaked out by Kura; Japan had a whole other deal on his hands. He was currently chained to the back wall of a prison cell, seated on a wooden bench, and unable to move around much. He was gagged, but could still see. He had no idea what they were going to do to him, or even who 'they' were. All he knew was that they weren't human in the slightest. No, they were much shorter than humans, and they had no arms or hands. They walked on all fours. They had tails, which curled over their backs. They had snouts, perky ears, and smooth fur coats. The noises they made sounded like pants, growls, and barks. Putting two and two together, Japan deduced that they were indeed wolves or dogs. And there were only two of them. And they were right outside of his cell.<p>

Japan was fully restrained, and was being watched by four eyes, possibly more, at all times. _Don't these dogs have to rest_? Japan desperately thought. But of course, they showed no sign of fatigue or weariness. The dog on the right suddenly tilted its head. It flicked its ear and turned towards its partner. Its jaws moved and Japan could've sworn words came out. The dog turned back to the Nation.

"Come with us." It snarled. The voice was male. Some unknown force opened Japan's cell door, while that same force undid his restraints. He rubbed his wrists, not taking his eyes off the two dogs. The one that spoke stalked into his cell and pushed him out from behind. Its head certainly felt real. The second dog grabbed the bottom of his jacket and pulled him the rest of the way out. This dog was furrier than the first in general, but it seemed like it had a lion's mane. The two of them dragged him down the dark, cave-like hallway. As they approached a tiled area, a dim light began to flicker on and off. Japan guessed that it was motion sensitive and needed a new light bulb. If America were here, he certainly would've tried to crack the 'how many people does it take to screw in a light bulb' joke. Japan tried to copy that scenario in his head, but he couldn't force himself to do it. Perhaps it was an American thing only.

As they approached the light, Japan could see the two dogs in more detail. The one pulling him was green. It was a dark, forest green, with a sea-green underbelly. It most definitely had a dark green mane. Its tail was coiled up on its back. One of its ears was split down the center and the other one had a claw-mark through it. And it was currently walking backwards, still clinging to Japan's uniform.

The one behind him was a stereotypical German Shepherd Dog. He had the typical tan and white coloration; his muzzle and back were black, while everything else was tan. But his eyes were a piercing ice blue. His ears were nice and round, and if it hadn't been for his apparent hostility, Japan would've been tempted to stroke him on the head.

"Keep moving." The Shepherd growled while giving Japan a forceful head-butt in the right direction.

"No need to push!" Japan gasped.

"Shut up!"

"No, please let me go!"

"Alright, I have three options. I can either rip your heart out right now, crush in your skull, or you can shut up and move."

"Fine, I'll move!" Japan put his hands up in the surrender position.

"Don't forget the shut-up part!" The Shepherd reared on his hind legs and shoved Japan even harder, and with his claws this time. Japan didn't dare argue. He continued walking. He approached a door that looked like an elevator. But it was anything but.

Japan was forced out onto a clear, circular, glass platform, flying high in the sky. It is instinctive for a Country to know where he or she is at all times on Earth, but right now, Japan had no idea where on Earth he was. A fireball the size of a baseball hovered in the very center of the platform. The strangest thing about it was that it was purple. It was the same shade of purple that he, Italy, and Germany witnessed that night. Japan moved his hand into the flames. He didn't know why he was doing it; he knew he just had to. It burned like dry ice- nothing like flames or heat. The tongues of fire licked at his hands and all Japan felt was numbness. He attempted to wrap his hand around the center of the fireball, but as soon as he made the move, the temperature skyrocketed. Japan screamed and pulled his hand out of the fire, the flames snapping their fangs after him. The two dogs were growling at him. And if this burning sensation wasn't enough to drive the Country to the edge of sanity, an excruciating headache started to thump in his mind. Strange images began to flow through his head, too many at once, and he almost blacked out. He was pulled back to the painful state of consciousness as the two dogs began to drag him towards the edge of the platform.

"No, no, no, no, no!" Japan yelled. Anything but that! His mind screamed for the two dogs to stop and let him go, but everything he said came out in a jumbled mess that nobody, man or beast, could decipher, and nothing he did made a difference. He looked at the green wolf on his right and the German shepherd on his left. Both of their eyes were aquamarine and glowing. They bared their teeth. For a second, the two dogs took on a much more menacing appearance; the green one became covered in stinking carrion and raw, bleeding, burning wounds, and the German shepherd's skin peeled away to reveal a skeleton too macabre to be mortal. Both sets of jaws were stained with fresh blood. Japan's eyes became heavy. He could just hear the soft yet terrorizing whisper of his aggressors.

* * *

><p>"<em>Go back to sleep!<em>"

* * *

><p>Everything became a pit of darkness as the body tumbled into a weightless free fall. Who knows where he'd land- or if he'd land at all…<p> 


	11. Divide and Conquer

**To The Ends of the Earth**

"So let me get this straight." Germany began. Taik, ZK, KJ, SS, Ni and Nao, and Ma were all gathered in the World Conference room. "There are supposed to be twelve of you, you come from Outer Space, you're chasing after the Elemental Beads of an Ancient Demoness, and you need our help to complete this task?" The seven of them exchanged glances. Taik spoke up.

"Yup, that pretty much sums it up. And we're psychics, for your information."

"That's preposterous!" England snapped. "There's no bloody way that you are from space!"

"Oh come on, Britain!" America exclaimed. "Tony's real, and the Pict are real! There's no denying that!"

"Who are the Pict?" KJ raised her hand.

"They were white blobs in humanoid form. They invaded Earth about a year ago, trying to 'uplift us'. But we're all too cool for that!"

"Right…" KJ turned to SS. "How can you _stand_ him?" SS clenched her fist. America gulped.

"So we're asking your help. We need to travel to the following places and recover the spheres." Taik took back the conversation. "And we also need to find the missing members of our groups."

"Da, but you've been a bad doggie, Fido." Russia calmly scolded Ma.

"I'm Ma Õkami, the Demon Wolf! And I'm a girl!" The werewolf roared.

"Down boy!" Steam began to flow from Ma's ears.

"Germany, Russia is creepy!" Italy squealed as he ducked behind his 'human shield'.

"Get off me!" Germany ordered.

"Okay, our locations are: The Empire State Building- America, Big Ben- England, The Palace of Versailles- France, The Coliseum- Italy, Berlin- Germany, The Great Wall- China, Tokyo- Japan, and Moscow- Russia. There are nine spheres in total, and we have only located these eight."

"And why do you need these spheres?"

"Because we say so…!" Everyone turned to SS, with a sadistic look and a huge, purple aura, a lot like Russia's. "And because I will steal your soul if you refuse!"

"It's true! That's her psychic power!" Taik noted.

"Taik!"

"Sorry, SS."

"Don't worry, guys!" America exclaimed. "I'll protect you all from her!"

"No you won't!" SS leaped at him and started to strangle him. He signaled defeat in almost every Nationality before she finally let him go.

"Kolkolkolkol…." Everyone's attention was drawn to Russia, who was letting his own aura flow. SS jammed her face into his.

"Who are you kol-ing to?"

"Kolkolkolkol…"

"Kolkolkolkol!"

"Great, the two psycho schizophrenic morons are having a kol-off…" Ma groaned.

"SS is schizophrenic?" Nao asked.

"What's schizophrenic?" Ni added.

"Not now; I'll tell you when you're older." ZK muttered.

"It means you're crazy." Taik interjected. And except for the two kol-ing _dummkopfs_, all was quiet. "So are we going to these places or not?"

"You will take us~ Kolkolkolkol…" SS hissed. Afraid to push her any further, the Nations started to split up with the psychics.

* * *

><p><strong>Germany…<strong>

"Here we are, Berlin Germany." He muttered as he and Nao stepped out of his private jet.

"Cool, you have a private airplane!" Nao exclaimed happily.

"Weren't you supposed to find some kind of sphere?"

"Ah, yes, I was!"

"Do you know where it is?"

"Not a clue."

"_Dummkopf_."

"_Dummkopf_."

"Stop imitating me."

"Stop imitating me."

"If you don't shut up right now,"

"If you don't shut up right now,"

"You're an idiot!"

"You're an idiot!"

"I'm an idiot."

"You've got that right."

"_Dummkopf_!" Germany shouted. Nao snickered. "So what are we supposed to do? Search every nook and cranny until we find it?"

"That's pretty much it." Germany groaned. This would be a _long_ day.

* * *

><p><strong>Russia…<strong>

Russia was having a similar situation. Ma had taken the form of a human teenage Latino girl with purple hair in three pigtails. She was wearing a cream-colored sweater and a pink skirt. Anyone would've thought she was completely underdressed for the harsh cold of this country. But Ma didn't seem fazed by it in the least.

"Where is the bead you were looking for, Fido?" Russia asked sweetly, but Ma was still ticked.

"My name is Ma and you will address me as such!"

"I will address you as whatever I see fit, _Fido_." Russia let out his aura. Ma growled. "Anyway, how are you supposed to find that gem thingy anyway?"

"I sniff it out." Ma suddenly began to glow purple and changed into her seven-foot-tall werewolf form. She got down on all fours and started sniffing.

"You're not really going to spend all this time smelling people's footprints, are you?" There was no response. Russia sighed. "If all you're going to do is waste time I could be spending on experimenting on Latvia, then I'm going home."

"Found it!" Ma exclaimed. Russia perked up. Ma was currently holding a small bead no bigger than a shooter marble. It was brown like tree bark and smooth like velvet. But inside of it was a flickering flame. It glowed intensely. "The tail of light!"

"We can go now, _da_?" Russia asked in a childish tone.

"Yes." Ma replied.

"Give me the bead."

"What? No!"

"I said give me the bead." Russia's aura flowed once more. He held up his pipe. It was a miracle that nobody had even bothered to stop and witness the insane Nation hold up a weapon to a humanoid wolf. Normally, someone would've called out animal abuse by now.

"I said _no_." Ma struck a fighting pose while grasping the bead between her teeth. One swipe over the head was enough to make her swallow it. The sound of a gulp sliced through the tension. Only one word found its way to both their mouths.

"Oops…"

* * *

><p><strong>England…<strong>

"What exactly are you looking for again?" England muttered, arms folded, and currently staring at the floor. He and ZK were standing inside Big Ben, the sound of gears turning and banging wrung through the room.

"I'm looking for a brown bead about this big." ZK made a loop with his index and thumb.

"And how are you going to find that in here, you git?"

"You would be wise not to anger us." England thought of retorting, but wisely held his tongue. ZK continued to look around. "It's got to be higher up."

"And how are you going to get up there?" Suddenly, ZK made an inhumane sound. England blinked to make sure he wasn't hallucinating. ZK's features began to change and he began to glow. It only took a second, but in ZK's place was nothing else but a monkey. It screeched at England and began to swing from gear to gear. Now completely scared out of his wits thinking that he'd teamed up with a demon, he began to panic. He ran around in circles with his hands over his head, trying desperately to calm down. If ZK weren't the serious person he was, he'd have most definitely sweat dropped.

But instead he kept his cool and continued his long climb to the top. Grabbing every nook and edge, he forced himself higher. He looked around for anything that would betray the presence of the bead. Finally, he found it. It was currently perched in the nook of a gear, dropping to a lower nook when it got high enough. ZK made his way to the giant silver mechanism that the item rested upon, but remained cautious. One false move could send the bead plummeting into the depths below, and heaven forbid he'd jump down there. He'd rather eat a whole cupboard full of England's scones before he'd let himself screw this up. So he let the gear lift him up there like an elevator, and when he was at the right place, he gave his paw a swipe. But, to his ultimate horror, the bead bounced off the back of his hand and out of the delicate system it had trapped itself in. Quick as a bolt of lightning, he whipped out his tail and snatched it up, wrapping around it many times.

England was still down there, yawning. _Blundering idiot… if only he knew how important this was_. ZK thought to himself. He jumped down in human form in front of England, who jumped. He opened his palm and showed the Nation the bead.

"Why is it glowing?" He asked. And sure enough, inside the bead was a bolt of lightning.

"Because it's the tail of electricity. Now come on; we have to get back to the World Conference building." And that was that.

* * *

><p><strong>France…<strong>

"Isn't my palace beautiful?" France asked while looking it over many times. Nobody was in it; France had gotten the two of them in on a Sunday. Being a Nation comes with special privileges.

"That's not the reason we're here, but yeah, it's magnificent." Taik replied.

"So what are we looking for?"

"A little brown ball the size of a shooter marble."

"And where would that be? This palace is huge! Not to mention, there are secret rooms and a huge garden!"

"Nah, the sphere is definitely in the building. And when I mean in the building, I mean _in the building_!"

"No! You don't mean…"

"Yeah, I do."

"I won't allow it!"

"You have to, unless you want to be trapped in this time-bubble forever!"

"What time bubble?"

"Did we not mention? The whole world is trapped in a time bubble, and the only reason you guys aren't affected is because of us! You keep all your memories from the day before, but everyone else goes blank!"

"But I still don't want you tearing up my beautiful palace!"

"Tear up your palace? No man. I mean that I need to get into the secret passage."

"Oh, phew…"

"And pull a few floorboards up while I'm at it." France fainted. Taik snickered. If only he had seen his face. And if only England could've seen him, too. When France finally came to, Taik was standing over him and holding what he could only guess was the bead she was looking for. "France, say hello to the tail of fire, tail of fire, France." And the only thing that could guarantee France some temporary peace was returning to unconsciousness. And that's just what he did.

* * *

><p><strong>America…<strong>

America was in a situation. But this one wasn't anything like the other Nations. He wasn't lost; he knew where the bead was. He wasn't worried about any object being destroyed. He didn't even fear for the life of the psychotic psychic who was currently free diving at the bottom of the river. No, America feared for his own life. SS, AKA Shizukana Shi, meaning 'silent death', was most definitely going to _kill_ him one day or another! She was mad! It was almost as if she had schizophrenia or something. In a way, he wished she wouldn't resurface. His wish failed him when he saw the head sprout from the water. Eyes narrowed and lips twisted in a frown, she stroked over to him.

"Do you have it?" He asked. Lady Liberty was looming over them, providing them with shade. SS nodded. "Well let's head back to the building."

"You're not the boss of me!"

"We need to go back to the building." Suddenly, SS grabbed his wrist with extreme strength. "Stop! You're cutting off blood flow to~"

"Kolkolkolkol…" America stopped dead in his tracks. SS's aura was beginning to creep along her body. _Oh great, a feminine version of Russia… And if I needed TWO commie bastards…_

* * *

><p><strong>Italy…<strong>

The two of them were at the coliseum. Plenty of tourists had made their way as well and were just leaving. The sun was setting on Italy. Ni was still searching every nook and cranny. No weed was left unchecked; no stone unturned. But having the mindset of a five-year-old and the annoyance of random and inconvenient teleportation abilities didn't help. If Italy wasn't playing with Ni, he was searching all over Italy for him. And if he wasn't searching, he was playing. It took a full seven hours before they wore themselves out. The good thing was that since there was a large time gap between Europe and America, they wouldn't be _that_ late…

"So," Ni finally spoke up. And they still had their hands in the dirt, searching for that damned bead. "How did you and Mommy first meet?" The young Italian looked up, but at no one in particular. Ni rubbed his eyes when he saw tears forming at the corner of his daddy's.

"We met many, many years ago."

"Like fifty?"

"No, like a thousand."

"Wow… You and Mommy are _old_…" Ignoring the remark, Italy continued. But he didn't wait or word it for the little boy to follow.

"I first met your Mommy many years ago. We were only children then, but it was love at first sight. You see; I had to spend my childhood at Mr. Austria's house, cleaning and doing all the chores. But Holy Rome kept me company. And sooner or later, we fell in love. We had our first kiss, too." If Ni made a noise of disgust, Italy didn't hear it. He continued. "We spent a few years together, but then he had to leave. He _was_ an Empire after all. He promised me he'd come back."

"But how did you and Mommy meet?"

"Oh," Italy's peppy and optimistic nature found him again. "He found me in a box of tomatoes about one hundred years ago." If Ni knew what a sweat drop moment was; he most definitely would've done it. That's when something shiny caught his eye. He turned around. Two seconds later, he whirled back towards Italy.

"What about World War Two? Miss Taik told us about that, and how Germany, Japan, and Italy were the axis."

"_Ve~_…" Italy sighed. "I was angry at Germany for a while. He did something very, very mean… But we all have to say 'I forgive you' in the end." _Now if only he could say that to himself._

"I found it!" Ni exclaimed while holding up a little brown marble with a slowly rotating mini maple leaf inside. Italy jumped as the kid snapped him out of his thoughts. "Miss Taik told me that this is a tail!"

"_Ve~_ what does that mean?"

"I-uh-o." He shrugged and made a sound that Italy could only interpret as, 'I don't know'. The two of them got up from the dusty ground, mission fulfilled. And as they were walking towards the exit, Ni asked another question.

"Daddy? Who's Holy Rome?"

"Huh?" Italy turned to him. He hadn't realized that he had spat out his entire life story to his kid. "He was a friend."

But the memories of his first love and his dearest friend wouldn't stop plaguing the Italian's mind. He couldn't stop the river of emotion as it streamed down his cheeks.

"What's wrong, Daddy?" Ni exclaimed, his own eyes watering at the sight of his dad's distress. "Don't cry, please! Don't you love Mommy?"

"_Ve~_, I do, more than you could ever know." Italy sighed. But which question was he answering- did he love Germany, or a shattered memory of what once was?


	12. Another Two Bite The Dust

**Another Two Bite The Dust**

_The other Nations would've gone back to America by now…_ Germany thought. In Berlin, the moon was high and the stars would've been twinkling if it weren't for all the city lights. They had definitely earned some strange looks as they searched for whatever it was they were looking for. _Well that's just plain unhelpful. I'm looking for something and I don't even know what it is._ "Nao, do you know what we're looking for?"

"Shut up, potato bastard." Nao snapped, using Romano's voice. He continued shuffling through the plants and snow. "Frankly, I never wanted you as a parent. It's just that Italy is so nice to us."

"And Taik isn't to you?"

"Taikiyoko? She isn't our mom."

"Then who is?"

"Like it's your business anyway."

"Do you hear that?" Germany suddenly demanded.

"I can't hear anything over your voice."

"No, it sounds like…"

"lp…" Nao glanced up. "elp!" He rose to his feet and turned to the direction of the sound. "Somebody help me!" _A cry for help_! He and Germany abandoned what they were doing and started to run down the street. They didn't have to run far. One turn around the next corner was all they needed. "I think he's dying!" The voice was definitely feminine.

The person they found was almost alien like. She had straight black hair. It was ridiculously long. If she were standing (which would be about 5'9), Germany estimated that it would reach her knees. Man, she really needed a haircut. Perched on the top of her head were two black dog-ears. Her human ears (if she had any) were hidden behind that humongous head of hair she possessed. Germany snorted when he glanced at her body. She was skinny and had little build at all. She was currently wearing something unsuitable for winter here in Germany. She wore a black thigh-length strapless dress and black flats. Around her neck, he guessed, was a dog collar. She was as close to one of Japan's creations as it could get. And speaking of Japan, there he was, unconscious in her lap. The mystery woman was kneeling in the snow. Nobody was around to hear her pleads for help.

"Japan!" Germany exclaimed, horror boiling in his eyes. Without a second thought, he shoved the girl away and started shaking him. He turned to the girl. "What are you doing here? Call 9-1-1, _dummkopf!_"

"I don't have a cellphone…" She replied.

"Who doesn't have a cellphone nowadays?" Nao snorted.

"Shut up, brat!"

"Hey!" Germany exclaimed.

"What? I hate kids! Hell, I hate _people!_" Germany mentally agreed. People could be pretty annoying. But that wasn't the key issue right then.

"Japan, wake up! Wake up!" Two brown eyes fluttered open.

"Germany?" The voice was barely a whisper.

"Japan, stay with me."

"So cold…" The eyes closed.

"Stay with me!" Quick as he could, he pulled out his own cellphone and dialed the number. "_Ja_, my friend is unconscious… 45th and 3rd… He's breathing, barely… I don't know how long he's been out here." He turned to the woman. She wasn't paying a lick of attention. As a matter of fact, she was about to leave. "_Nein_, someone else found him…" He suddenly turned back to her. "You can't leave!"

"Why the hell not?" She snapped. She had a British accent to her speech.

"You are needed for questioning." The girl groaned. By the looks of things, either she _really _did not like people, or she was hiding something.

* * *

><p>The ambulance arrived on the scene in no time flat. Japan was quickly loaded onto it. Since there was no room in the front, the three of them got into the back with a doctor and officer.<p>

"What's your name?" He questioned.

"Scarlett Lynn Madison." She replied curtly.

"When did you find Mr. Honda?"

"I dunno, fifteen minutes ago?"

"Mr. Beilschmidt, do you know anything about this incident?"

"_Nein_."

"Thank you." And that was that. This Scarlett girl refused to talk. She certainly made the most of the right to be silent. Japan, aside from the extremely cold temperature, seemed physically fine. However, Germany's blue eyes turned towards the palm of his right hand. It had a scar laced around it.

* * *

><p>Germany sighed. He and Nao had finally made it back to the World Meeting location in America. There were three new people in the room at that moment. One of them was in a white t-shirt with a red sweater tied around his waist, with even redder shorts. He had smooth, blond hair with blue eyes. He had something of a hair curl, like Italy's. The second person was the true definition of a tall dark stranger. He was dressed in a tuxedo, with a top hat, and a white mask like Turkey's. He had skin the color of sandpaper. He was also wearing white gloves. The third was in all black. He had black hair to match. He had a black dress shirt, black slacks, black shoes, and a black tie. A few strands of hair fell over the right side of his face.<p>

"Well, you certainly took your bloody little time." England growled.

"It was Japan." He growled. The atmosphere immediately changed.

"What happened to Japan?" Russia asked.

"_Nein_, I don't know."

"Who's that vixen behind you there?" France asked. England covered his face while ZK looked away.

"_Ja_, about that…" France had no time to react. 120 heaping pounds of woman leaped full force on top of him, beating him mercilessly with Russia's pipe.

"You call me that one more time and I'll personally beat that ego of yours off the face of this planet!" She screamed with no letup.

"Why does everyone always steal my pipe?" Russia groaned.

"Shouldn't someone be stopping them?" Italy asked in a panicky tone.

"Why? This is bloody hilarious!" Britain laughed. Someone behind them all cleared his throat. They all turned around to face the masked stranger in the tux.

"Thank you, Aid." Taik noted. The man called Aid nodded. "So I assume we've all brought back tails?"

"The little spheres?" France asked. Taik nodded. She held up her bead. It had an orange flame in it. SS held up the tail of water. Ni held up the tail of wood. And ZK held up the tail of electricity. Taik turned to Ma.

"What about you?"

"We'll have to wait till it comes out the other end, _da_?" Russia suggested. All of the sane countries and psychics shuddered at the thought. Taik face palmed.

"We're still missing KJ and Kura." The one in all black noted.

"Vincent's right. We need to find Kura." Aid interjected.

"And what about KJ?" The blond boy asked.

"I'm right here, moron." He turned around to see KJ's green hair. When standing side by side, they had the potential to be identical, if only their hair was the same color. "And I scoured the land for a tail, but I didn't find it. And I looked _everywhere_."

"Wait, we're still missing someone…" Everyone turned to ZK.

"Yeah, Kura." Ma replied.

"No, not her… We have, from the K-PO, Aid, Vincent, SS, KJ, and Ma, then from the T-PO we have Taik, me, Ni, Nao, Iwa… we're missing Kura and Ken!"

"And the four tails of light, metal, darkness and wind." Taik slid in.

"And those… no, we have the tail of light. We're just waiting for it to… come out." ZK replied rather uncomfortably. "And we need to contact Ken. But Ken's usually the one who tracks things. He tracks aura, for those of you who don't know." He addressed the nations.

"You see, this is why Kura doesn't like you T-PO's!" SS snapped. "You give away all of our secrets without any thought whatsoever! And Ken is always forced to erase their memories!" Some of the nations started to stare at them.

"Uh…" A voice broke through the crowd. They all turned to Russia. "Someone should stop them,_ da_?" He asked while pointing to the ground at Scarlett, still beating France crazy. Germany picked her up without a lick of effort. And yet, she was still flailing about, trying to strike the frog.

But everything stopped when a scream rung through the building. The six nations, the eleven psychics, and Scarlett ran towards the source of the cry, with Germany in the lead. The scream got louder and louder as they raced down a few flights of stairs, onto the third floor landing, to room 305, Austria and Hungary's room. The door was already wide open, with a wide-eyed and terrified Canada standing in the doorway.

Austria and Hungary were currently fighting. But this wasn't any fight; they were fighting just as savagely as Vietnam and Iraq, if not more. Hungary's frying pan was torn and broken in various places, leaving sharp and ragged edges. Austria's violin (or viola, I don't know) was in shambles. By the looks of things, he had tried to use it as a weapon, but it was no match for the frying pan. His glasses weren't propped on his nose in the usual, neat and tidy manner, but were smashed on the floor. Austria's eyes were slammed shut; the glass from his glasses had cut his eyes. And the two of them were covered in open and bleeding wounds.

"I won't let it happen again!" Germany shoved Canada aside and grabbed Hungary. She was fast, though. While locked in Germany's grip, she took her frying pan above her head and brought it downward onto the blonde's. Germany stifled a cry of pain, while the other two charged at each other. Austria had a lamp in his hands now. He swung, just as Hungary swung. Glass and metal exploded between the two as the weapons collided. It scraped their skin, cut their already torn clothes, and even catapulted towards the watching nations.

"We have to help!" Taik finally exclaimed. The six T-PO members charged at the fighting nations. However, Italy grabbed the hands of Ni and Nao.

"Don't go in there! Danger, _Ve~_…"

"Dad, let go! We have to help! They'll kill each other!" Ni protested, trying to shake loose of Italy's grip.

"No, I won't let you go!" A final, bloodcurdling cry made Italy look up and loosen his grip on the children. Austria's now bloodied form was lying crumbled on the ground, the jagged frying pan lodged in his throat. His eyes had softened from the cold, rabid ones to ones filled with horror.

Hungary's glare was still there, stitched onto her face. She was glaring at the closest living being to her- Germany. The top of his head was bleeding. But before she could attack, Canada leaped into the fight.

"Canada! No!" France exclaimed, reaching out to grab his adopted son. Canada wrapped his arms around Hungary's, hoping to immobilize her while someone else _did_ something. Someone did do something, but it was the wrong thing. Taik grabbed Canada and tried to yank him off Hungary. And as soon as Hungary witnessed this weakness, she whirled around and landed a punch to Canada's nose. There was a crack and a shatter of glass. Canada slammed his eyes shut, but it was no use; the glass from his glasses was already in his eyes.

"No more!" Ma Õkami yelled. In here werewolf form, she strode up to the female nation and slashed her throat with her large claws. Droplets of blood landed on her claws, snout, and on anyone close enough.

"Ma!" KJ screamed in horror.

"Ma, we're here to save lives, not end them!" Aid scolded. Ma growled at him, only to be whacked in the head by Russia.

"Bad doggie!" He snarled. Ma narrowed her eyes, licking the blood off her fur. Everyone else was in too much shock to say anything else. In the end, England was the one to speak up.

"We need to get to the bottom of this!"

* * *

><p>Thanks to Hetalia. Power for the OC of Scarlett (I had to spell this author's name wrong or else the upload wouldn't upload it; sorry about that...).<p> 


	13. A Turn For The Worst

**A Turn For the Worst**

Currently, the G8 minus China and Japan were in the meeting room. Everyone was glaring at the psychics.

"Believe me, knowing won't make solving this any easier or you feel any better." Taik's voice was unnaturally icy and calm for her. The Nations simply continued to glare at her. Scarlett was staring out the window and currently picking her nose. Taik shrugged. "Fine, but I warned you."

"Let's start simple for the sake of our brains, _oui_?" France suggested.

"Ask."

"What are these tails you speak of?"

"They are exactly that. They're tails of an ancient Demoness."

"What does that mean, exactly?" Russia asked. Taik sighed.

"Why don't I start from the beginning? Just last month, the T-PO and the K-PO were called down to Earth from Saturn and to the year of 2011, to find this missing Demoness. She's known as Ninetails, a nine-tailed fox. She's the strongest kind of demon known to any species and yet, nobody knows of her. We were called by her so that she could recover her two messengers and leave."

"What brought her to earth in the first place?" Germany interrupted.

"A plane crash." A deadpan fell upon every nation's face in the room. "Okay, it was all Vincent's fault! If it weren't for his stupid experiment, we never would've gotten into this mess!" The nations turned their attention to the K-PO member in black, currently standing behind Aid. Taik cleared her throat. "If I may continue?"

"Go ahead."

"Okay, so we found her two messengers, and we convinced her to leave. She left VIA a portal, but something happened to it and she sort of… crash landed here. And all we know is that her tails have all scattered throughout the globe, perhaps even the cosmos. We have to get them all back and then find her."

"What do we do when we find her?" Italy asked. "Is she pretty?"

"She's pretty nasty, I'll tell ya' that much." SS grunted.

"We give her tails back, and try to persuade her to leave. Then we have to make sure she leaves successfully."

"Where does she live, anyway?" America butted in.

"Uh… it's kinda' hard to explain…"

"That doesn't matter right now." Aid stepped in.

"He's right," Iwa added. "What matters is that we find the missing tails and guard them with our lives until further notice."

"Wait!" A hand rose to the ceiling. Everyone turned around. There was Canada, gauze wrapped around his eyes. Red splotches were dappling the white cloth as if it were a ray of sun peering through a forest canopy.

"What is it, Canada?" France asked politely.

"Who are these messengers?"

"Good question." KJ exclaimed. "They're her henchmen! They do all her dirty work! Uh… wait, make that they do all the work she doesn't want to do. Err, wait, that's not right either…"

"They exist to serve her and protect her." SS snorted.

"Yeah, that!"

"So she's an evil entity?" England interrupted.

"Evil isn't the right word. She's most definitely not evil. You see; there are two sides of energy. One is a yang side, and one is a yin side. Demoness Ninetails is the protector of yin energy. Without her, existence would be over."

"Then who keeps the yang side of energy?"

"Uh… those would be the gods, if you choose to believe so. I can't really say if there's a true embodiment of yang energy. But there is of yin."

"Like good and evil?"

"No, like positive and negative. In terms of intention, it's neutral. They are neither good nor bad. They are just 'so'." With that, Taik gave an enthusiastic nod. A hand rose again. She glared at its owner.

"Why come to us, then?" Russia asked, completely oblivious to the glare.

"In order for us to find the tails, we needed to contact the nations in which they were contained. And besides, this place is trapped in an endless time loop and who better to save than the G8 themselves?" Taik struck a France kind of pose.

"What?"

"What time loop?"

"Huh?" Voices flew across the room. SS's elbow met Taik's side.

"Oh yeah, I forgot to tell you." Taik yelled. She waited for quiet. "There's an extreme distortion surrounding the Earth as of now, causing this day to repeat over and over again. We still think Demoness Ninetails is to blame."

"But what about the Countries that have died? Did you forget them already?" America snapped.

"No. Remember, we are here to save you as well as accomplish our goal. So you have not been affected by the time loop like the others. You know, the supernatural can harm un-supernatural beings in very supernatural ways." Once again, the deadpan flew across everyone's faces. Even Scarlett had turned around to deadpan.

Japan got an early release from the hospital. His hypothermia had been treated and he was on the road to recovery. But he still wouldn't wake up. He wasn't in a coma; he was simply sleeping. And yet, nobody could wake him up. Of course, Germany was outraged that he was being released in such a condition, but according to the hospital, his state wasn't serious enough. Germany clenched his fist while piggy backing Japan out of the hospital.

It was madness. Japan had been put back into his hotel room and was left with a bodyguard. But putting a bodyguard with him would be risky business- who knows when someone would snap? Greece and Prussia were called up and put in his room as guards. ZK was also placed with them. Nobody had bothered to tell the two nations the whole story, so they said that Japan had fallen over drunk on the side of the street and came down with a severe illness, and they also said that ZK was in charge. Greece of course didn't mind at all (he was too busy with his catnap), but Prussia deemed ZK too un-awesome to be in charge of him. And whatever happens in that room is his fault. At least, that's what Germany said.

Returning him to the hotel was their only real option, because of the time loop. There would be another meeting tomorrow, and they had to show up. They all prayed that their friend would wake up. But he didn't. And he seemed to be having nightmares. But he wasn't he only one having nightmares. And just because the G8 was protected from going mad doesn't mean they're protected from others gone mad.

* * *

><p>A gunshot rang out. Feliciano screamed, latched onto Ludwig, waking him immediately.<p>

"Italia! What are you doing in my bed?" He screamed. Feliciano paused. There it was again… that name…

"Holy Rome…" He whispered. Germany's eyes widened and softened.

"_Was_?"

"Mommy, Daddy! Gunshots!" The two turned around to face Ni and Nao.

The door to Ludwig's room flew open. The four of them dashed out of the room, up the stairs, and to Ivan's room.

* * *

><p>The psychotic young man was sitting against the side of his bed. His bloodied pipe was lying nearby. And standing just across from him was the last person they expected to see. Latvia. He was holding a smoking gun and his once valiant red uniform was now soaked with his own shade of red. From the looks of it, Russia had been shot in the left side and shoulder, and he wasn't giving up without a fight. But he was starting to falter. He forced himself to his feet, glaring. But Latvia's cold, oblivious stare was even more frightening than Russia could muster at the time.<p>

Italy was terrified, cowering behind Germany. And Germany was the most uneasy he had been since the Second World War. Latvia was so innocent, and to see him turned into a monster… Ni and Nao were standing outside in the hallway. Nao had the braver face of the two. Ni vanished. Nao let a curse escape his lips. Germany had had enough. He snarled and charged at Latvia. But an even more bloodcurdling cry stopped him dead in his tracks.

"Germany! HELP ME!" He whirled around, fear imbedded in his cold blue eyes. Estonia had Italy trapped in a chokehold. A gasp called the blonde's attention towards Nao. He was staring straight at a third figure slowly stalking down the dark hallway. His eyes were blank and soulless. And he had a sadistic yet faint smile laced on his face.

"So Germany," The voice hissed.

"Lithuania!"

"Who will it be, your beloved Italy or Russia?"

"Bastard…" Germany growled.

"Well that's not a nice thing to call someone."

"Please, I will have no more deaths on my watch!" The sadistic smirk had turned into a grin.

"Like the 11,000,000+ weren't already enough, _Nazi_." In a flash, Germany had drawn out his gun and whip. The pistol was aimed at Lithuania while the whip was held at the blond nation's side. Latvia cocked the gun again. Russia did his best to summon a glare, but he couldn't hold it. So instead, he let his dark aura flow, something Latvia had always feared- but not this time.

There was another gunshot and the sound of glass exploding, which made Italy jump and scream.

"You missed." Lithuania's voice said simply. Germany couldn't bring himself to. Not after what he'd already done. "Are you _really_ that soft?" The taunts were getting to him, and he was starting to show it. He needed a miracle to get out of this. But he knew. He knew he was stuck. He needed some extreme deus ex machina for everything to turn out right.

* * *

><p>A rough voice woke China and Kura from their sleep. They looked up to see the two dogs from before. "Get up." The shepherd snarled. China obeyed; he really didn't have much choice.<p>

"What do you want, aru?"

"Like you're in any position to be making demands." The wolf snorted. Kura ran up to the bars and started thrashing about wildly.

"When I get out of here I'll finish what I started months ago! There'll be nothing left of your corpses!"

"Silence!" The shepherd roared back.

"You've kept us in here long enough! Aru!" China joined Kura at the bars. The two canines exchanged glances.

"Well, our mistress _has_ been waiting for the chance to speak with you." As if on cue, the bars opened. "But we've already got all the help we need. So go ahead, try and find your way out. I assure you, you never will." With that, the dogs vanished.

"Why?" China turned to Kura. Something was not right about this.

"_Why?_" A voice hissed. It echoed through the metal tunnels and poorly lit chambers. It was neither masculine nor feminine. "_I don't know. You tell me._"

"I'll tell you why!" Kura snapped. "Because _you_ have been here for too long, waiting for your power to return to you! You're getting bored all cooped up in here! You need entertainment!"

"What are you doing, aru?" China gripped the K-PO's shoulder tightly.

"_You want to entertain me? Go ahead. RUN!_" The lights turned off. The two prisoners had no source of illumination. But they now were stuck in the dark, and as this being's personal jester. So they ran. A light flashed every now and then, giving the two some sense of what was ahead, but they never could be sure.

"We passed that crate seven times, aru!" China yelled, pointing to a large wooden crate in one of the larger chambers. Kura didn't have time to respond before she was drowned out by the entity's evil laughter.

* * *

><p>Meanwhile, Japan, still asleep in his bed, was having one of his nightmares. But in addition to that, he was sleep talking. Prussia and ZK crowded around him to hear what he had to say. "Entertain… run… find my…" Prussia and ZK exchanged glances. ZK risked glancing at the Greek moron who was still sleeping on the floor. "Earth shall pay…" The two turned their attention back to Japan.<p>

"_**Dearly**_**."**


	14. Horrible Revelations

**Horrible Revelations**

In one swift movement, Russia charged forward at Latvia. He successfully kicked the pistol out of the tiny nation's grasp. Estonia tightened his arm around Italy's throat.

"Let him go!" Germany launched a wild punch at Estonia, effectively breaking his glasses (A word to the wise- always wear contacts to a fight). Germany took the moment of opportunity to tackle Estonia away from innocent little Italy. A clang of metal sounded behind him.

Russia had Latvia at pipe-point. His dark aura was oozing off his body. It was so thick that you could actually feel it seeping onto your skin. It gave off a cold, menacing feeling of death. Something clicked in Germany's mind. Russia was already mad before this whole time-loop thing began, so what was there to protect him from that?

"You have been very bad, my Baltic states. _Da_?" It took Germany some time to realize it, but Estonia had stopped struggling. Perhaps it was because he got glass in his eyes? But no, Lithuania had stopped too. And Latvia was on the verge of tears. _It seems that the Baltic trio is back to their somewhat-normal selves._ Germany thought. _Did Russia do this?_ "And badness must be punished, _da_?" He raised his pipe.

No, there was nothing to save Russia from his own madness. "Russia!" Germany exclaimed, grabbing hold of the insane nation's arm, standing in between him and Latvia.

"Germany!" Italy cried. This was the third time since this had all started that his best friend had involved himself in a fight.

"Out of my way!" Russia hissed, slamming his forehead into Germany's. Taking him off-guard, Russia kneed him in the stomach. Germany doubled over, and Russia shoved him aside, advancing towards Latvia. Italy scrambled to Germany's side, screaming his name, and then helping him sit up. Italy tilted his head up just at the right time to witness the bloodstained pipe come crashing down onto Latvia's head. The nation moved no more. When the sunflower-loving monster looked up from his deed, he saw nobody but Germany, Italy, and the kid. Estonia and Lithuania were gone. He turned to Latvia's broken form, cradled his head in his arms, and said, "The punishment never fits the crime, _da_?"

"Russia, you _dummkopf!_" Germany roared. Russia didn't look up. "We're supposed to be stopping the killings, not causing them!" The air was thick with tension. Nobody dared to speak. The footsteps of a nation approaching stopped them all. "Herr Scotland?"

"It's bad… very bad… Lichtenstein, Switzerland… they're dead…" Scotland was panting, doubled over, leaning on his knees for support.

"No, not another one!" Nao wailed, in his natural voice this time, while Scotland's stomach emptied itself at the sight of Latvia. A sickening, tense, and terrifying moment passed.

"What's going on?" Scotland asked, as soon as he was able to recompose himself. Nao looked at his wristwatch. Then he looked up at the nation, a neutral expression and a hint of grave knowing present.

"You don't need to know. After midnight tonight, you will have no recollection of the events you have seen."

* * *

><p>China and Kura were running as fast as their legs could take them. They raced down corridors, through large chambers, and never let even a two-foot distance between them. And they had good reason to. The minute the two of them started to run down a forked passageway, the door behind them slammed shut. They were lucky they were so close. But the voice never stopped laughing. The two of them approached another fork. And they let three feet get between them. A barrier fell between them. They were separated.<p>

"China!" Kura screamed. There was no response. "China!"

"Kura?" A weak voice whimpered. Kura turned around to see another forked path. She walked slowly towards the intersection. And looking down the right path, she saw a dead end, with China's bloodied and beaten form lying by a closed door.

"China!"

"Kura, you left me…"

"We were just back there- and…" Kura stopped. This was nothing more than this foul being's form of _entertainment_. "How long have you been here?" China's eyes hardened.

"Two weeks…" He growled. "Every night, they come, aru, and they beat me."

"Who? Who comes? I promise we'll both get out of here. China, this is all a mind game made up by that wretch…" She closed her eyes to hold back tears of fear- and when she opened them again, China was gone. "Not again…" Before she could even turn around, a piece of the ceiling fell and became a wall.

"Kura?" The voice was barely a whisper.

"China? China, is that you?" She looked around, but couldn't find him. She ran down a corridor and entered a large chamber. The ceiling was painfully high, and the lights were blinding. But the strange thing was that they came from the floor.

"Kura…" Kura looked up. There, lying on the ceiling, was a hill of carnage that could only be identified as China's almost-remains.

"China, dammit! How'd you get up there? And what happened?"

"You left me… aru… again. I waited for you."

"How long this time?"

"Two thousand~" Kura blinked. Everything went away.

"Kura? Aru?" Kura whirled around to see China, fully functional, staring straight at her. "What's wrong?" Kura shook her head.

"Nothing. This place is playing with our heads. Come on." The two of them resumed running. And then, gravity seemed to shift. They toppled over from one surface to another. They both sat up, groaning.

"Are you okay, aru?" China asked. Thudding was heard behind them. The corridors were chasing them. They got up and ran, keeping their hands clasped, just barely dogging slamming walls and falling ceilings, until they met a dead end. There was a large steel door, but it wouldn't budge. China tried to smash his way through it, but it didn't give. Kura rolled up her sleeves.

"Hit the deck!" She ordered. China turned questioningly, but Kura didn't wait for him to move. She pressed her hands downward, and suddenly, China's body felt 100 times heavier. He was forced to the ground. Even then, his back crushed his ribcage. But as said before, nations don't fall to just anything. However, that doesn't mean they can't feel pain. Squeezing one eye open, China watched the room start to cave towards the ground, the door included. And after what seemed like forever, the intense pressure let up. The door toppled over.

Thoroughly winded, China could only stare up at Kura in fear and wonder. But Kura read him like a book. "You couldn't have warned me before you did that, aru?" He panted.

"No time." Kura shook her head. "Now let's go!" The two of them were about to dash out the door, but Kura stopped them immediately.

"What, aru?"

"Look, man, look!" She pointed. They were floating high above the Earth. And China couldn't tell which country they were over. A series of thuds came from behind them. They whirled around to face the ceiling and walls all slamming the corridor shut. And they were getting closer. "Jump!"

"But we'll never make it, aru!"

"You have a better idea? Hell, you'll survive!"

"I can't…" The two of them yelled over the thudding of the corridors.

"Well let me help you!" Kura gave the nation the shove of his life. She followed right after.

"ARU!"

"HAAAAAAAAANNNNNGGGGGG OOOONNNNNNNNNN!"

* * *

><p>The World Conference went as expected, although dead nations weren't there. However, nobody seemed to notice. The G8 who were present seemed to be very disturbed. The psychics were waiting back in Japan's room, guarding him with Prussia's help. They were working with Scarlett to locate Ken and the final tail, and possibly Demoness Ninetails herself. They said something about using Scarlett as a guinea pig, because she had those dog-ears, and seemed immune to the cold. Scarlett, of course, flat out refused, and even threatened to chop of anyone's head that dared to try. The eleven psychics forced her to comply in the end.<p>

Germany managed to keep the peace, not having any explosions going off, or fights starting, or most importantly, nobody died. Italy was clinging to his sleeve, much to his dismay, but he still allowed the young nation to do so. Italy's forehead was pressed into Germany's arm. He was in a light sleep, after being unable to go back to sleep last night for obvious reasons. And Russia seemed to notice one last thing.

"My little sister is not here, _da_?" Everyone turned to him.

"And what about Ukraine?" Scotland interjected.

"And I don't see Lithuania- or, like, any of the Baltic trio, now that I think about it," Poland observed.

"And where's the Swiss twins?" Australia wondered.

"Wait, where are Austria and Hungary?" Spain spoke up.

"Shut up, tomato bastard." Romano snapped. "Nobody gives a damn." Suddenly, the doors burst open to reveal a very worried Aid. The tall, masked, shady man rushed over to the nearest G8 power he saw, in this case, England.

"Sir England, look." He showed him a newspaper. England grabbed the paper, leaped out of his seat, and screamed a deafening,

"NO WAY!" The nations all gathered around him. The article was clear. The land where all the missing nations' land was (save Japan and China) was all filled in with water. It was as if the land had never been, and the ocean had never left. The nations were beginning to panic. Something was happening to their world, and they knew instinctively that they were powerless against it.

"Herr Aid, what's the meaning of this?" Germany demanded.

"The temporal bubble is slowly erasing Earth from existence."


	15. A Plan of Cosmic Proportions

**A Plan of Cosmic Proportions**

While the Nations were having a meeting, the members of the T-PO and K-PO, excluding Ni, Kura, and Ken, were having their own meeting. The situation was darkening, and nations were dying. It was becoming far more frequent. And the most worrying thing was that the psychics hadn't the power to bring the dead to life. They could teleport, open dimension holes, and control the mind, but they couldn't ever control life itself. The strings are too delicate.

The nine of them were sitting in a circle in Japan's poorly lit room. Prussia and Greece were sitting in the corners of the room, silently observing. Well, Greece was sleeping, but that was beside the point. Scarlett was sleeping next to Japan, and Gilbird was happily perched on Prussia's white head.

"Uh…" KJ began. "Do those two _have_ to be in here?"

"Come on, I'm too awesome to be kicked out of the room!" Prussia announced. "Who's with me?"

"Is he still drunk?"

"Hey!" Prussia squeezed in.

"Well I think Mr. Snooze is having his fair share of hangovers right now." SS muttered, motioning towards Greece.

"Psychics, please, focus!" Aid snapped.

"Thank you, Aid!" Taik commented. Then she took over the conversation. "We need to get to the bottom of this and fast."

"We already know what's at the bottom!" ZK clarified. "It's the nations who are the mindless fools!"

"Hey! Don't call _mein bruder_ a fool!" Prussia growled.

"Come on, it's not like you've never wanted to call him that!"

"_Ja_, but I don't ever say it! Well, not when I'm sober…"

"Which is never…" KJ added cheekily. "You're cute, did you ever notice?" Prussia blinked. Well, that was a first…

"Well, anyway…" Taik cleared her throat.

"It would be much easier if we had Kura here." Vincent suggested.

"Buddy, you're new to the whole creating a portal thing, so lay off the suggestions." SS laid a hand on the young psychic's shoulder.

"But what other option do we have? For all we know, they could be awaiting their execution!" The nine psychics all glanced up at the same time. They started to imagine what horrendous tortures Kura would be inflicting upon her captors. Yes, Kura is the lord of torture. Nobody lays a hand on her and gets out alive. Well, that's the aura that she always projected when she was around the K-PO.

"Yeah, but you're forgetting one thing. We can only open portals in the space-time continuum if we're all here, and we're short Kura and Ken." Taik reminded them all.

"Uh… what are you all talking about?" Greece's languid voice croaked.

"This doesn't concern you, snooze boy!" Ma silenced him with a growl. Greece shrugged and returned to his nap. Ma turned back to the psychics. "Please remind me why we chose _him_ to guard Japan."

"Yeah, we didn't choose." Iwa snapped. "Now come on. Back on focus."

"Well we don't really know what to do. It's not like we can all fan out across space and time, can we?"

"Yeah, we can." Everyone turned around to the black-haired, dog-eared awkward woman sitting in Japan's bed. "I may not look like it, but I'm from a foreign solar system in a different dimension." She said like it was nothing greater than corn on the cob. Everyone else just stared at her.

"And you choose to mention this now… because?" Nao asked when nobody else would.

"You never asked." She stuck her finger up her nose.

"Yeah, that's not the greatest thing to do in public."

"And neither is having sex, so go figure." She snorted.

"Man, she sure has some lousy manners." KJ muttered, but Scarlett's dog-ears picked it up instantaneously.

"I heard that." She flicked her index finger at KJ's green hair.

"Uh… wasn't that the finger you just had…up…your…" With the sudden realization dawning, KJ ducked, clutched her beautiful, short, sea green hair in her hands. "EEEEEEEEWWWWWW! You got booger in my hair!" And she burst out of the room, crying.

"And so what? It's not my fault if people are the groveling lowlifes they are."

"What is it with you and people?" Taik groaned.

"I hate them!"

"Who?"

"PEOPLE! They're always so annoying and loud and stubborn and lazy and~"

"Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, shut up." ZK put his hand over her mouth. He jumped two seconds later. "AIY! She bit me!" He waved his hand up and down.

"Hey! Don't bite my friend!" Taik snapped.

"Who are you to boss me around?"

"Well we need to know how to travel through space and time! So we need you either to do as we say, or we'll have continue bossing you around!"

"Taik, that's basically the same thing." Nao pointed out.

"Beside the point!" Taik turned back to Scarlett. "Listen, we need to travel through space, and perhaps time in order to save the Earth from ultimate destruction. So do you have anything that can take us through space and perhaps time?"

"Uh… I have a spaceship."

"Since when do you have a spaceship?" KJ snorted.

"Since forever. But it's not like we can all fit inside it."

"That's okay. We'll take just a few." Taik took back the conversation.

"And it's not like I want you inside in the first place."

"You know something, buddy?" SS thrust her elbow towards Scarlett's throat. "I think _you want_ us in side." Scarlett swung her arms away from her in one swift motion.

"Who says?" She yelled with a thrust kick. SS dodged.

"I do!"

"Nao, please stop them." Taik requested. Nao just cleared his throat. He inhaled, and then exhaled, imitating an air horn perfectly. The two of them ducked and their hands flew towards their ears. Taik signaled with her hand, and Nao stopped. "Okay, so do we have your cooperation?" Scarlett was about to protest, but Nao simply inhaled again. She gave a reluctant nod. "Good." Taik turned back to the other Psychics. "We'll be wanting to inform the Nations about this." She then addressed SS and Aid. "Take her."

SS and Aid grabbed Scarlett in one quick movement. "Hey! What is this?" She demanded.

"We can't have you ditching us or pulling some trick on us when we least expect it, now can we?"

"You're asking for it!" She snarled.

"You asked for it the minute you showed your face to us!" SS thundered.

"Don't think I'm done with you!" With that, she was led away in the mob of determined psychics. Prussia and Greece were alone. And that only spelled trouble… And it hit one Nation like a rock to the head.

The newspaper article had rudely interrupted the World Meeting. England was still staring at it in shock.

"Something's wrong…"

"Germany?" America asked. "Dude, what's wrong? Is it a stroke?"

"_N- nein!_ East! It's _mein bruder!_"

The Nations took off like rockets. The G8 rushed down the stairs, with Germany shooting out in front of them. The door to Japan's room had already been busted open. The ten psychics and Scarlett were trying to keep Greece away from Prussia, but being the immortal nation he was, Greece had far superior physical strength. He burst out from the apocalypse of psychics with the frying pan Ma had used not ten minutes ago.

Prussia, on the other hand, had received a nasty head wound. He was leaning against the wall, his blood streaking it. "East!" Germany yelled. He looked half dead. Suddenly, Prussia's dull eyes widened.

"West, look out!" He warned.

"Scheiße!" Germany ducked just in time. The frying pan flew out the door, crashed through the window, and triggered a car alarm. "Greece!" He yelled. Suddenly, the psycho nation stopped. He tensed. And then he started to lay face down. But he looked like he was fighting his own body. Everyone stepped aside and watched as Vincent's eyes glowed pink. His gaze was unfazed as Greece was lowered to the ground. With that, SS gave Greece a fierce kick to his pressure point.

"At this rate, everyone's going to end up dead," England muttered. Nobody wanted to believe it, but he was right. This had to stop, and soon. Germany and Italy were currently treating Prussia's injury.

"Hey, guys… Look…" Taik took out her cellphone and showed them all a news report. The area around East Germany had just suffered a serious earthquake. It was 9.2 on the Richter scale. And Greece had just been enveloped in a heavy fog that appeared out of nowhere. According to the report, people couldn't even see their own hands, let alone one another.

"Taik, aren't we forgetting something?" KJ motioned towards Scarlett. Taik sprung up.

"Oh yeah!" She turned towards the nations. "I've found a way to travel through space!"

"And why would we want to do that?" Germany growled.

"Because, we need to find the three remaining tails!"

"But aren't two of them on Earth?"

"Yeah, but while you nations were having your meetings, Ni has been in China and Japan, searching. And he found nada."

"Well if he's halfway across the world at this moment, then how do you know he's found 'nada', as you say?"

"Cellphone!" Taik waved a cellphone in England's face. "GO TECHNOLOGY!" And that's when her phone rang. She flipped it open. "Hello, you've successfully reached the Taikiyoko Psychic Organization; this is Taikiyoko speaking, how can I help you?" There was a pause. "You did…? Really? … So I _was_ right! … That's great, Hemmington! Look, I can't thank you enough…" She continued talking like there was nobody else in the room with her. And she was successfully ignoring the other Nations' stares. "Aw, come on, really? We've got to… Planet Picton? WTF? Why do we have to go there?" There was yet another pause. Some of the Nations cringed at the memory of the Pict. "Yeah, I got it… No, we have our own method of transportation… we'll be fine… Okay, now you're really starting to annoy me… yes, I'll remember not to forget Ni… goodbye now."

She ripped the phone away from her ear and ended the call. She glanced up at all the nations staring at her. "What?"

"Who were you talking to, and what was that about?" America asked dumbly.

"My boss, and he said he located the Tail of Metal, and he told me not to forget Ni."

"Tail of Metal?"

"Yeah, it's the Tail of Metal. What more can be said? It was supposed to be in Tokyo, Japan, but I guess the Pict found it first."

"We really have to go into space?" England groaned.

"Hey!" Everyone turned around to face Scarlett. "What did I say about all you people in my spaceship?"

"Hey, if it'll make you happy, then only a few of us will go." SS snapped.

"I call first!" A hand flew up. Everyone turned around to face Prussia.

"Second!" Italy raised his hand next. Germany's eyes dashed from Prussia's bleeding form to Italy's happy-go-lucky smile.

"Hey! _Bruder_! You can't be going on a wild goose chase in that condition! And Italy, you really think you can survive half an hour up in space with _them_?"

"_Ve_~ I want to see the Pict! They were nice to me!" Italy explained. "Besides, it'll be fun!"

"And this sounds too awesome of a trip to take place without the awesome me!" Prussia added, while sticking a cocky thumb towards his chest. Germany sighed.

"Well if you two are going, I am certainly _not_."

"Come on, West, it'll be awesome! And the awesome me will be with you the whole time!"

"That's exactly why I'm staying here…" Germany muttered.

"But Germany!" Italy protested. "You have to come with us! I'd be lonely without you!" The rest of the nations just _had_ to blink thrice when they saw what seemed to be Germany blushing slightly.

"Dude, are you in love with that guy?" America sneered.

"_Nein_, I am not!" Ignoring the cocky American, Germany turned towards Italy. "You really think you can survive up in outer space?"

"I know I will, because you will protect me! Right?" Italy persuaded. Germany turned away.

"_Ja_, I guess so."

"Then that settles it!" A rough arm caught him around the shoulders. Prussia. Who else? "Come on, Gilbird, we have some alien butt to kick!" The yellow bird flew over and perched on his head. But the minute it touched his skull, Prussia sank to the ground in pain. "_Scheiße…_"

Germany face palmed.**  
><strong>


	16. When In Doubt, Space Out

**When In Doubt, Space Out**

In the end, it was decided that the following people would embark on the quest for the Tail of Metal: Scarlett, SS, Italy, Germany, and Aid. Taik and Prussia both desperately wanted to come along, but Scarlett flat-out refused them permission. And even to get these other four onto the ship in the first place was a hassle.

* * *

><p><em>Flashback!<em>

_"So this git is now suddenly from some foreign country called Dalmasca and has a spaceship?" England snorted. Scarlett was currently tied to a chair with some very strong rope. Germany had done the honors. "I'll believe that when hedgehogs fly!"_

_"Or hell freezes over!" Prussia slid in._

_"Shut up." Germany muttered._

_"Uh guys?" Everyone turned to America, his face stuffed in a piece of paper. "Dalma-what-cha-ma-call-it isn't on the map." And of course, the map he had his nose in was the U.S map._

The narcissist…_ That thought ran through basically every nation's mind. They turned their attention back to Scarlett, who had her nose raised at them. Her eyes were gently shut, and her aura was giving off that 'I'm better than you' feel._

_"Is it essential that we keep her?" France whined to Taik._

_"If she's our only way to get into space, then yeah." Taik twisted around to face Scarlett. They had a stare off. It was the foreigner's purple eyes against Taik's lime green ones. The stare-off lasted for about two minutes. Taik smirked. "You're not very bright, are you?"_

_"TREASON!" Scarlett shrieked._

_"Shut up!" England roared. "And since when did you have a spaceship anyway? This seems all too suspicious!"_

_"I keep telling you, I found your unconscious dufus in the snow, on my way to my ship that accidentally crash landed here!"_

_"You know," Everyone turned their attention to Aid. "I find it most trivial to linger on what was, when what is has so conveniently placed itself on our front door." A wave of silence passed through the crowd._

_"What?" Prussia finally spoke up._

_"It means forget all this; just use the goddam spaceship."_

_"Okay, newsflash! Aid just said something in four thousand years, and furthermore, he has a rational point!" KJ announced. Aid slapped her._

_"Woo hoo! Aid's on a roll!" Ni cheered, only to be socked by his twin._

_"Brotherly love- what would we do without it?" Prussia asked, while trying to get closer to Germany, who sidestepped just out of reach. Prussia frowned. "Do you have a problem with the Awesome Me?"_

_"I don't know why I tolerate you…" Germany muttered._

_"Guys?" Taik's voice yelled, but nobody heard her. She shouted it again. "Guys!" And still, there was too much yelling. Finally, she propped herself up on the nightstand and shouted, "GUYS!" Everybody stopped. _

_"What?" America retorted. Taik fixed him with a glare._

_"So some of us have to travel to Planet Picton in order to recover the Tail of Metal."_

_"Well I'm not going anywhere!" England snorted._

_"Neither am I." Germany added._

_"Well, we'll need Scarlett, since she's the pilot and most likely knows which way Planet Picton is." SS reasoned. "And I suppose someone should keep her in line. That would be me, of course."_

_"With my help." Aid noted._

_"Yeah, sure, whatever."_

_"Okay, and I'll go too, since I will be able to tell what the Tail of Metal looks like." Taik explained._

_"I want to go!" Italy exclaimed._

_"Why?" Germany spat._

_"Don't you remember the marker I gave them? And besides, we're friends now."_

_"Since when?"_

_"Wait, Germany," ZK interrupted. "Last time you saw the Pict, they reacted badly to all of you, except Italy. They saw something in him, and he's our best chance of getting the Pict to cooperate."_

_"Well, if he's going, I'm going too."_

_"Aw, do you like Italy?" Prussia taunted._

_"Shut up. I'm going to protect him. He couldn't stand one day off of Earth, or away from pasta."_

_"True…"_

_"No pasta?" Came the Italian's voice. "But- why won't there be pasta?" Taik sighed._

_"You can take some with you, how about that?" She offered._

_"Hey!" Scarlett thundered. "That's not your decision to make!" Suddenly, SS slammed her up against a wall._

_"First of all, you're _our_ prisoner, and it'd be wise to do as we say!"_

_"And besides," France started. "You don't want to see Italy without his pasta, _mon ami."

* * *

><p>And basically, that's how it went. Now all they had to do was summon the ship, get in it, and shoot for Planet Picton. It couldn't have been more easily done. Scarlett simply pressed a button and the chosen people were teleported to the ship.<p>

It was a lot less interesting than Germany pictured. It was a simple dome-shaped area, with a cockpit, a bathroom, and everything else was living quarters. And it was very, very white. It almost stung Germany's mind to remember the Pict's plain white ship.

"Why is this place so boring and white?" Italy complained. A cold chill suddenly crawled down the young Italian's spine. He turned around to see Scarlett glaring daggers into him. "_VE~! _I didn't mean it! I surrender! White flag, white flag!" Italy whipped his flag out and began waving it.

"And is there some reason why your flag is so boring and white?" Scarlett retorted.

"Oh… well… I don't really know…" Italy paused. "I never thought about it before."

"Hey! Brat!" Scarlett's head whirled around to face SS. "Why the hell is your food white?" With that comment, everyone (except Aid) crowded around Scarlett's tiny refrigerator, which was also white.

"The same reason white flags are white! Stop pestering me about it!"

"You want to _start something_, buddy?" SS snarled.

"Bring it, small fry!"

"Hey!" Germany shouted, but to no avail. The two girls continued to fight. "Stop this! At this rate, we're not going to accomplish anything!"

"_Ve~_ white flag, white flag!" Italy screamed, waving his white flag around. Aid face palmed. They were getting nowhere fast. Wait, I take that back.

"SCARLETT!" Aid yelled in alarm. SS and Scarlett stopped fighting and looked up. The radar on the dashboard was blinking. Scarlett took her place at the wheel of the ship. Suddenly, the big round thing jerked to the left. Everyone who was standing was knocked off his or her feet.

"Hey!" SS snarled. "Warn us next time before you do that!"

"You _want_ us to get disintegrated?"

"Wait, _what_?" The ship jerked again. Scarlett pulled a lever and the ship started to go into hyper drive.

"_Ve~_ what's going on?" Italy cried while grabbing Germany. "Holy Rome, help me!" And just for Germany, all of the insanity stopped. He stared at Italy. He felt like something was trying to force its way towards his mind, but he couldn't fish it out.

"What did you just call me?"

"Germany! It's so scary!" Italy whimpered, burying his face into Germany's side. The moment was soon interrupted by the ship jerking once again, but not because of Scarlett's lousy driving. They had been hit, but by what?

"The shields are failing! We're going down!" Scarlett screamed.

"Well do something, _princess_!" SS snapped.

"But a lady never does anything to get her hands dirty!"

"But she will do something if I threaten her life!"

"I am too noble to do something like that!"

"You're missing the point!"

"SHUT UP!" A new voice thundered over the panicking group.

A monitor next to the radar started to buzz. There was some static, but it soon cleared to form a picture of a white humanoid blob. It had a light attached to an antler over its head, like an anglerfish. It was a Pict. Scarlett suddenly became on edge.

"Hey, it's the Pict!" Germany noted as they all crowded around the screen.

"_Ve!_" Italy's fear suddenly vanished. "HI! Do you remember me and Germany?" The blob just stared at them. Finally, it spoke.

"You are in the sector of the Pict. State your names and intention." Germany looked around, a little uneasy.

"I am Germany, this is Italy, SS, Aid, and Scarlett." The Pict paused.

"Scarlett Madison?" Germany nodded after a few seconds. Something was off. There was yet another gap between words. "Intention."

"We've come to find the Tail of Metal." If the Pict had eyes, they would be narrowed now. But Germany could still sense the suspicion attached to the alien.

"Are you delivering anything?" Germany exchanged glances with Aid.

"_Ve~_ If you want another marker, you can have one! And some pasta!" Italy butted in.

"Are you _with_ the Dalmasca Princess?"

"_Ve~_ what does that mean?" Italy asked. "What princess?"

"Are you with Scarlett Lynn Madison?"

"Um… I think so?"

"Wait, Scarlett is a princess?" Germany interrupted.

"In that case…" The voice cut him off. Suddenly, a giant white sphere appeared in front of them. It had been cloaked in an invisible shield, but now it was visible. And it was huge. And there was one last detail- there were guns pointed right at them. "You are all under arrest!"

* * *

><p>Back at the World Meeting building, Taik had just made a call to confirm her suspicions. Ma had been suspicious before, and now it was time for her to check in. The phone rang. Once. Twice. Then he picked up.<p>

"Yes, Hemmington, I need to ask you… No, I remembered Ni. Well, no, not exactly. You see; that's what we need to talk to you about. Do you know anything about Dalmasca? … Mhmm… Uh huh… What? You've got to be… Scarlett? I _knew _there was something fishy about her! They _what_? The Pict are? All right! Thank you. No, we don't need help. We haven't needed help ever since that first incident with the FBI and the Jeffersonian. Goodbye, Hemmington." Taik hung up. Behind her stood the Psychics.

"So, what's the verdict?"

"Well, from the Boss' knowledge, Dalmasca is a foreign Dimension that is currently in a tight-knit war with the Picton Empire. Scarlett Lynn Madison is the heir to their royal monarchy."

"So… She's a princess? Okay, I did not see that coming."

"Not just any princess; she's the princess of Dalmasca."**  
><strong>


	17. The Bigger Picture

**The Bigger Picture**

China woke up hazily. His head hurt like mad. "Aru…" he weakly muttered. He was leaning against a white wall. In front of him were white vertical bars. Of course, he was in another cell. It wasn't made of anything from Earth. The whiteness stung his eyes. "Kura? Where are we?" With that, he fell over sideways, waiting for the response. But nothing came. He forced one eye open and examined his surroundings. He was alone. "Where are you, aru?"

He grabbed the bars to support himself as he rose to his feet. He staggered a little, wincing. He leaned against the bars and slid back down. It hurt too much to stand. He observed his cell. It was narrow, with nothing in it. It was plain. A door behind him opened. He turned around to see a Pict entering the room. It was holding a white plate. It slid the plate under the bars (which were elevated about two inches off the ground.

China stared at the mush in front of him. It would've looked like mashed potatoes if it hadn't been so white. He looked up at the alien in front of him.

"Eat." It commanded.

"Where am I? How long have I been here?" The Pict stood there. When it had watched China stare for about five minutes, it turned around and left. "Hey! Wait! Aru!" The alien left and China was left alone with what was probably breakfast or something- probably going to go with 'or something'.

He stuck his finger through it and gave it a sniff. When he didn't pick up an odor, he gave it the old taste test. Well, it was tasteless. I guess that's better than most other situations. China was aware of this and grateful. He continued to scoop it up, finger by finger. He didn't swallow it all at once; he was too uncomfortable. He needed some tea or something to soothe his stomach.

Then the door opened. China glanced upward. He couldn't believe his eyes. In came Italy, Germany, and three other people he had never met. But it was Italy and Germany! "What are you doing here, aru?" China asked, but before they could answer, the Pict who brought them in interrupted.

"We'll be back for you." It snorted. Germany was about to charge after it when bars from the floor encased him in a cage. He smashed head first into it.

"Germany!" Italy exclaimed, only to find himself trapped inside a cage himself. This happened to the three others who were sent there.

"Damn." The one in the tux snapped. The lady in the blazer let out a huge curse.

"Aru…" China groaned. His head was spinning even more now.

"China, what's wrong?" Italy asked.

"Where are we?" The woman with the ears snorted.

"Who the [censored] cares where we are; we have to get out!" The other woman smashed herself into the bars.

"SS, calm down." The man in the tux snapped. "Beating yourself up isn't going to solve anything."

"I'd like to beat you up!" SS growled. The man in the tux turned to China.

"I'm sorry, I am Aid and this is SS. The one with the ears is Princess Scarlett."

"What's going on?" China asked.

"You're China, if I'm not mistaken, right?" Aid asked. China nodded. "Well, Kura spoke of you. She said she'd find you. Do you know of her?" Again, the Eastern Nation nodded.

"We've met, aru. She was with me up until now…"

"Where is she now?"

"I don't know, aru. That's what I'm trying to figure out. We were held in some kind of prison, and the guards were these dog creatures, aru. Kura and I made an escape. I'm not sure how it actually happened, but all I know is that we jumped out a door that was hovering over the Earth, and ended up here, aru. But I don't know where Kura is."

"Hey!" Another voice snapped. China and Aid turned around to face the princess. "It's rude to speak as if there's nobody else in the room with you!"

"That's never stopped you before," SS muttered. Suddenly, Scarlett's face was pressed against the bars restraining her.

"You want to start something?"

"I do not start fights- okay that's a lie- but I sure as hell can finish them!" SS roared, pressing her face against her cage's bars. While those two snarled at each other, Germany decided that it was a good time to start addressing the game plan.

"Italy," He called.

"_Ve_? Germany?" Italy called back. It was unfortunate that the two of them were the farthest apart and that SS and Scarlett were only a few inches away from maiming each other.

"When the Pict come back for us, be nice to them. Remember, you were the one who made them willingly leave after the invasion. They like you, so you have the greatest chance of saving our lives."

"Wha~?" Italy paused.

"Just talk to the damn aliens!" Aid groaned, making them both jump. And as if on cue, the doors opened to reveal three Pict.

* * *

><p>Meanwhile, back on Earth, the rest of the G8 were in for a big surprise. "You guys?" America alerted them. They crowded around him at the window of the World Meeting building. What they saw made them all gasp, even Russia.<p>

"It's…"

"The Pict!"

"What are they doing here?" As if in response, all of their cellphones rang.

"Hello?" They asked simultaneously. The reply was a non-human voice. At once they knew who it was.

"_Because you have alliance with Dalmasca, you have declared war on the Picton Empire._" The line went dead. All that was left was a looming silence as the Nations exchanged glances. Something was _very_ wrong. A laser shot of green flowery goodness confirmed this. Everyone who did not evacuate the building was turned into noppera. In other words, all of New York had fallen to the alien invasion. Today, America. Tomorrow, the rest of the World!

But one hope still remained. Japan, still unconscious, guarded by a now Pict-ified Prussia and Greece, had remained untouched. The bead of fire that had been in Taik's pocket the whole time had now slipped out of her noppera grasp and bumped Japan's hand, which had been dangling off the edge of the bed. And for the first time since he had fainted in Germany's arms, he stirred. Then, something weird happened. The already located beads floated from their holders' pockets were summoned to Japan's side. Three of the nine beads, the ones that were missing, took the form of gray, colorless spheres. They all floated around Japan's neck in a circular motion. A distorted air started to from in front of his chest. A kitsune mask materialized, and Japan reached out to take it. He moved it up to the ring of beads as they all strung together to form a necklace. Then a staff materialized in his hand, shaped like a silver cross. There was even a snake crawling up it.

The two dogs, the shepherd and the wolf stalked up to him from the shadows. The three of them moved out of the room together. The entity below was losing patience. I guess if you want to get something done, you had to do it yourself. Ninetails, in possession of Japan, was ready to make war.


	18. An Unaffordable Mistake

**An Unaffordable Mistake**

Back with the Pict and their prisoners, the aliens were getting ready to begin an interrogation.

"What are you planning?" The first Pict demanded.

"We weren't planning anything." SS spat, rather rudely. The Pict just stared at her. "Okay, that's a lie, but it's not what you think!"

"Then what was it?"

"You see, we're looking for the Tail of Metal and Wood, and we were wondering if you knew where it was." Aid stated matter-of-factly. The Pict exchanged glances.

"How do you know about that?" The middle one snapped.

"You just told us." Scarlett snarled.

"Silence!" The Pict on the left slammed its fist into the bars. The middle Pict turned back to Aid.

"Answer the question." It ordered.

"Well, _ja_, about that…" Germany started. "Would you believe us if we told you?"

"Withholding information only gives them more reason to suspect us of something," SS hissed.

"That's right, so you'd better start talking!" the Pict on the right snarled.

"Well, Demoness Ninetails, this gigantic nine-tailed purple fox crash-landed on Earth about two months ago in the form of a gigantic purple meteor~"

"Wait!" Germany stopped the psychic.

"What?" SS growled.

"How long ago did the meteor hit Earth?"

"You Earthlings have been stuck in the time bubble for about two months ago, give or take a few." Aid replied.

"And she has been underneath the Earth for a long time now. She's waiting for her power to be restored, but that can never fully happen until she regains all of the tails she's lost, and since two of the missing three that we can't find have been pinpointed here, we came here the only way we could, which was on the Dalmasca idiot's spaceship, and here we are stuck in cages, for no good reason other than you white blobs have some kind of ridiculous grudge against that princess, even though I don't blame you; she is quite the bother…" SS replied all in one breath.

"That is one long run-on…" Aid muttered. He had always been one for grammar. The Pict exchanged glances.

"Aw suck it up you three!" Scarlett snapped. "They're telling the truth!"

"Well as you humans say, never trust a wolf in sheep's clothing." Germany deadpanned. He knew this wasn't going to work. Suddenly, the door opened one more time. A new Pict came in; there was a silly face drawn on its head. Italy perked up at that.

"_Ve~_ did I draw you?" He asked. The Pict spared him a glance, looking a little confused. It was almost as if it had recognized Italy. But no matter- it turned back to the three others with urgent news.

"Earth is fighting back! They've sent a warrior to destroy us!" Everyone gasped. Germany panicked.

"No, we never~"

"Shut up!" The Pict on the right snapped and this time, kicked Germany. "There's only one punishment enough for actions such as these. You will serve the rest of your life on board this vessel, which will last oh… three to five days…" With that, the four of them stormed out of the room in a frenzied rush.

* * *

><p>Back on Earth, Ninetails, in control of the personification of Japan, was standing completely balanced on the single antenna of the now Pict-ified Empire State Building. He stood with his back straight, the staff in line with his posture. And he was glaring down the Pict ships. They hadn't seemed to notice.<p>

They got closer and closer, until Ninetails jumped down onto the ship. Japan stabbed it with the staff, effectively breaking through the ceiling. A ray of flowery white-ness blasted at him. Japan bended backwards, evading by a hair. When the beam stopped, Japan slid into the hole.

It only took five minutes before Japan found the control room and lit a match in the fuel tank. Ninetails, using her six present tails, defended Japan from the raging flames and poisonous gasses. The Pict on that ship weren't as lucky. The explosion claimed all of their lives.

Still in control of Japan, Ninetails continued to strike the oncoming fleet. But no matter how many she destroyed, more and more came. _Where does the Pict get these resources?_ Japan scowled. With Ninetails' help, he was floating in midair. The staff was still in his hand. And Ninetails wouldn't be able to reach her full potential without her three missing tails.

* * *

><p>The Pict just stared at Germany, metal restraints holding him to a white chair. He was scowling at them. "Very wily, human." One of them muttered. "You have not only allied with Dalmasca, but you have allied with the Hellhound Trio as well."<p>

"The _what_?" Germany hissed. "I have no idea what either of them are! I only heard of Dalmasca yesterday! And what Hellhound~" An electric bolt from some makeshift taser-like staff turned his babbling to screams.

"Lies." The Pict snarled.

* * *

><p>From outside, the rest of the gang could hear the intermittent cries and waves of green electricity. Italy was in tears. He didn't dare imagine what they were doing to Germany. And the four of them were in some kind of handcuffs. They were kneeling on the ground, but their legs and feet were still mobile. But the thing keeping them down was the two Pict standing guard with staffs flowing with electricity. Something about them had grown more sinister over the last few years since Italy last saw them. Or else this was how they had always been, but they hadn't brought these things to their first invasion, underestimating the strength of the Earth. But now, they needed these things for this intergalactic war they kept speaking of.<p>

Nobody was attempting to comfort Italy; the two psychics were not the 'comforting' type, China wasn't on great terms with Italy, and Scarlett was being held in some kind of crystal tube, also flowing with green electricity. And the tube was soundproof. Besides, she was gagged and cuffed as well.

"Shut up." One of the Pict finally snapped. Italy tried to stifle his crying. He put on the bravest face he could muster and said,

"Let Germany go!" The Pict advanced towards the now cowering Nation aggressively.

"You want to take his place?" The hostility of the alien's tone only made Italy burst into his pathetic apocalypse of tears again. The Pict sighed.

"We swear; we do not mean any harm, aru!" China protested.

"We cannot take your word." The second guard growled. "You are in our solar system, in our spaceship, and you came with the Dalmasca Princess. You really are a pathetic enemy if I do say so myself."

"Maybe we _brought_ you the Dalma-whatchamacallit Princess on our own free will, moron!" SS snapped as-matter-of-factly. Aid gave SS a glance. She glared back. He watched understandingly as the two Pict exchanged glances, somewhat startled and enlightened by this response. It was obvious they hadn't thought of that. The Dalmasca Princess in the crystal tube was now struggling and slamming her forehead into the walls, in their general direction. If the tube weren't soundproof, they would've been hearing muffled profanity in her native tongue. The Pict stared at Scarlett and then at the psychics. Italy's crying had now hushed to a sniffle. It was certainly more peaceful.

"It makes sense if you think about it." Aid added, almost too quickly. "You've seen the human race before; you tried to change us. But in the end, the Pict Queen had seen the brighter side of our existence. Why would we want to make war on you, if we know you have superior technology?"

"We haven't the authority to say or do anything." Just, then, the door where Germany was being held opened. The Pict exited the dark room. They exchanged glances with the other two guards. Words were exchanged. The ones who were interrogating Germany suddenly looked confused. They turned to the three in handcuffs, and then the prisoner in the tube.

"Is that possible?" They asked. The others shrugged. "We will report this." With that, they left. The two guards stood in their places at the door. Italy rose from the ground and started to run towards the room Germany was in. The two Pict did not try to stop him; instead, one of them followed him in.

Germany was still stuck to the chair. He was still in his blue military uniform, but it looked burned. His hair was slightly messy; it wasn't slicked back like usual. The Nation noticed Italy right away.

"Germany!" Italy exclaimed, hugging him. The Pict in the background had a sweat drop moment. "You're alive!"

"_Ja_, I'm alive." Germany replied. "It just hurt, that's all…"

"Well that's putting it mildly, isn't it?" SS snorted. She, China, and Aid had also walked in.

"_Ve~_, I don't want Germany to hurt…" Italy mumbled. Germany stared at Italy, but this wasn't his normal deadpan stare. A memory started to pry at his head.

* * *

><p>"<em>Promise me you'll come back." A high-pitched voice called. A young male human, appearing no more than nine years of age stared back at it. He wore some kind of black cloak, like France, only less tacky. He looked like a younger version of Germany. He nodded, a sad yet faithful smile on his face.<em>

"_I promise."_

* * *

><p>Germany shook his head. <em>What was that?<em>

"Germany, are you alright?" Italy asked in a soft tone. Germany blinked.

"Err… _ja_, I'm fine." Then he raised his voice. "Now get me out of here!" The Italian started to work at the bands, with everyone else helping too. But they had all seemed to forget that the Pict guard was in the room.

"Ahem." It snapped. They all turned to it. "I can't let you do any more than that until I receive word from the boss."

"When did you guys become so grumpy?" SS muttered under her breath. Right after that, a glowing green sphere appeared. The Pict Queen was inside of it. Two bodyguards accompanied her. She stared at the four Earthlings and then at Scarlett in the other room. Then she turned to Italy.

"We have waged war on your planet, but it doesn't make sense that you would do something so devious." She said.

"We are really nice and kind! But humans do have their darker days." Italy replied. The Pict Queen pondered for a minute. Germany was about to interrupt, but she held her hand in his face. She wanted only the one she trusted to speak.

"What is really going on?" She asked.

"_Ve~_, I don't know! I wasn't paying much attention when they went over this!" Italy started to panic.

"Who is 'they'?"

"Oh!" Italy's mood returned to happy-go-lucky. "They are the psychics! Um… I think they're called the T-PO and K-PO." The Queen nodded and motioned for the scrawny Nation to continue. "Uh…" Suddenly, a light bulb went off over Italy's head (not literally). "Right! We were looking for these little spheres! The psychics told us that you had one!"

"These psychics are interesting specimens. They seem to know quite a lot about us."

"I don't know how they do it; they just do!"

"What do you know about Dalmasca?"

"What's Dalmasca?" Italy asked. If the Queen had eyes, she would've rolled them.

"Why do you want to find these spheres you speak of?"

"Oh, that's an easy one!" Italy exclaimed happily. "We need to find them to give them back!"

"To whom?"

"Someone called… uh… Demon Ninetails?" The Queen stiffened. "What's the matter?"

"Well, there is a Ninetails attacking our people right now."

"WHAT?" SS couldn't help but let that slip. The Queen turned sharply to her. "Demoness Ninetails is awake? How? That's not possible! She needs to have contact with one of her tails!"

"But how could that have happened? None of the Nations are that stupid, and Demoness Ninetails was nowhere to be found!" Germany pointed out.

"But what if she had possessed someone? If a tail touched a host she possessed, she could regain power." SS explained.

"Well, whatever the case, this is a bad situation, aru." China interrupted. He took this time to talk to the Queen. "Excuse me, your majesty, aru…" She turned to him. "Do you know of a female human in a black blazer with loosely flowing brown hair? She was with me until I woke up here."

"She was…" The Queen paused. "I don't know if we're talking about the same human, but there was one that matched the description that we put on one of the other battleships. It's headed for Earth right now." Suddenly, the door flew open once again. A Pict rushed in.

"Your majesty," It bowed before the Queen. "There is a human that is single-handedly taking down our spaceships, one after the other!" She spun around to face the other four in alarm.

"Did this human have anything strange on it at the time?" Aid stuttered after realizing she wanted them to say something. The Pict hesitated, but the Queen nodded.

"The human was wearing a strange mask and had a cross-shaped staff." The Pict replied.

"It's Ninetails…"

* * *

><p>American army tanks approached Japan's floating form. Ninetails growled. The tanks fired. Japan took the staff and knocked the shots back. But the Pict weren't about to pass up this opportunity. They fired as well. Japan shot straight up letting the two shots collide. A huge explosion resulted. The nation was blown back, but unscathed. Ninetails was protecting him. He readied his staff again. This time around, there would be none left, neither Pict nor human.<p> 


	19. The Missing Link

**The Missing Link**

The mistake had already been made; the Pict had focused their energy on Scarlett rather than the war in front of their white, humanoid, blobby selves. And now they were paying the price. The retreat had been commanded, but there was no response. Ninetails was wiping them all out without mercy. Both Pict ships and human vessels were under assault. There would be no mercy this time around.

And the Queen of the Pict had already figured that out. She was coming. The magnificent mother ship was coming. It would fall at the Demoness' claws. She would reclaim her missing tails and destroy all who would dare stand against her.

* * *

><p>"No, you don't understand!" Aid yelled. He was practically on his knees, begging that the Pict Queen not go through with this. "She'll annihilate you without a second thought!"<p>

"Get away!" The Queen snapped, thrusting her arm into his face, effectively shoving him out of her personal space. She turned back to the controls and pressed a button. "Prepare the cannon." A low rumble consumed the ship. Italy's crying intensified. Scarlett was still trapped inside the tube and currently screaming insults at them, despite the soundproof and electric glass.

"Just stop it!" Germany growled, grabbing the Queen's arm. "It's not worth it!"

"Get off." She snarled, sending a burst of energy at the Nation. Germany barreled into China with a _thud_.

"We're all going to die if you do this!" SS added.

"Approaching the Sol sector!" Came a voice over the intercom.

"Take aim!" The ship rumbled again. There was no mistaking it; this was the cannon moving. The windshield suddenly transformed into a screen, zooming in on the personification of Japan. A target symbol locked onto his form.

"No!" Germany wailed.

"FIRE!" A green beam of flowery goodness exploded from the top of the gigantic, round, white ship. The Queen was watching from the cockpit. The monitor videoed as Japan's head twisted around to face the oncoming beam of light. Japan shifted into a low stance, and smashed the cross-shaped staff into the burst of energy. The beam had been stopped dead in its tracks.

The cannon had to recharge. The Queen stood there, baffled. She quickly recovered and commanded another round, only to receive the same results.

"All arms!" She ordered. "All arms!"

"Why won't you listen?" Aid demanded.

"You don't know what you're doing!" SS roared.

"FIRE!" The mother ship suddenly jerked backwards; the recoil from all of the arms firing at once was almost as forceful as the energy sent outwards. But of course, why did the Queen expect any different? However, there was something different that happened this time. The possessed Japan took the staff and held it in a batting position. The gigantic wave of power was his ball. The energy came close enough, and Japan swung with all the might of the Demoness within his body.

The entire wave had been redirected towards the mother ship.

"What did we tell you?" SS thundered. The Queen remained silent. She would not admit she was wrong, not to the same species as last time.

"Deflect it with another round of everything!" The Queen ordered over the intercom. A message came back.

"We've exhausted too much power! We can't fire!" The same voice replied.

"Then retreat! Retreat!"

"We can't go anywhere! We've lost too much energy!"

"So we're all going to die?" Germany exclaimed.

"Not if I can help it!" SS dove for a control stick- the one that looked the most like a steering device. She pulled as far down as it would go. The ship dove through Earth's atmosphere.

"Oh no you don't." Ninetails growled under her breath. She grabbed her tail of Fire and of Water and flung them at the beam. The two elements clashed, forcing the beam of redirected Picton energy at the falling spaceship.

* * *

><p>"We're all gonna die!" Scarlett screamed from inside the tube. What she said was only half true, though.<p>

The energy crashed through the ceiling of the ship, running it through, all the way through the hull. The green beam of destruction had completely impaled the ship.

"Mayday! Mayday! We're going down!" The voice over the intercom alerted.

"We can see that!" The Queen snapped. She pulled on the lever that sent them flying down, but SS had jammed it into place. "The lever is stuck! We're done for!"

"Italy, grab my hand!" Germany cried. The two of them locked hands and Germany made a last-ditch effort to escape this fate.

"Wait!" SS's alarmed voice exclaimed as both she and Aid ran after the two Nations. Germany, with his running start, crashed through the cockpit window, and now, the two Nations had entered a free-fall, without the heavy spaceship weighing them down.

"Come on!" Aid pressured, just before jumping out the window like Germany. SS grabbed some kind of white sheet and was about to jump too, when China caught her eye.

"We can't just leave her, aru!" China cried, pointing to Scarlett.

"Oh yes we can!" SS snarled. She turned to the Queen. "Come on!" And then she jumped out of the ship. Now, the only ones left (besides crewmembers) were China, Scarlett, and the Queen.

"Help her, aru!" China begged. The Queen hesitated.

"I can't just leave my crew to die alone! A true leader goes down with her ship!"

"Please, your majesty," China was practically in tears now. The Queen spoke her last words. They were as cold as dry ice and held lethal venom in their fangs.

"_No way in hell am I to ever let that bitch run free._"

* * *

><p>As expected, the ship landed with a huge explosion. It was only safe to assume that everyone on it was killed, but then it was only natural to hope that there was at least one survivor. But Demoness Ninetails was not natural. She smirked. The Picton Empire had practically fallen at her feet, just as she had planned.<p>

Germany, Italy, SS, and Aid were still in free fall. And they still had a couple thousand feet to fall. A fall like this wouldn't kill a Nation; only a Nation could kill a Nation. But it would still hurt like hell. And Germany wanted to spare Italy that kind of pain. He never wanted to see his Italy in pain, not since the Second World War. He twisted around with Italy still in his arms, positioning himself so that he would take the brunt of the fall. He pulled Italy's head into his chest, made sure his arms were away from anywhere he could get injured, and then braced himself.

But the psychics on the other hand, they would most certainly die if they hit the ground. That's why SS thought ahead, unlike Aid. She had brought a white tarp. She instinctively grabbed onto Aid's wrist, and gripped the two opposite sides with her other hand and mouth. The tarp fanned out like a parachute, reducing their speed by at least half. And they still had a while to fall.

Aid grabbed another corner of the tarp, and the speed felt even more reduced.

"Don't let go!" He growled. SS growled something back, but it was muffled by her jaw clamped shut over the white tarp. Aid could only assume that was a retort.

* * *

><p>Germany hit the hard, solid ground with a sickening <em>crack<em>. The wind had been knocked out of him, and he couldn't even release a cry. Italy had suffered less of the impact, but the sudden stop had winded him as well. His face was still buried in the larger Nation's chest. The tears were still flowing. But by now, Italy had noticed that they were on solid ground.

"Germany?" He whispered. His body felt heavy as he tried to lift himself off Ludwig. His blue eyes were open and unmoving, as if dead. "Germany?" Feliciano called, but now, he knew something was wrong. He shook his best friend. Ludwig blinked. He exhaled, but the sound was broken. "Germany?" The last call was weak and as broken as Ludwig's breath. Feliciano got off of Ludwig and was now vigorously shaking him. He called out for anyone to help. "Somebody, please! Help me! Help me!"

That's when SS and Aid landed. They more or less crash-landed. The two of them rolled on the ground, covered in cuts and bruises from the fractured cement. The two of them got up fairly quickly. They heard Feliciano's cries and came to his side. The first thing they noticed was Ludwig, lying on the ground in a pool of blood. The second thing they saw was the slight and fragmented rise and fall of his stomach.

"He's alive…" Aid whispered.

"I suppose Nations are immortal." SS whispered back. Aid knelt next to Ludwig.

"I…" He stopped.

"What's wrong?" Feliciano asked, sniffing here and there.

"I don't know anything about medical emergencies. If Ken were here, he could heal him. But he isn't, which gives us all the more reason to find Ken."

* * *

><p>Meanwhile, back at the crash site, Ninetails in possession of Japan was shuffling through the rubble. And then her prize rolled out from what looked like a broken pedestal. Two beads tapped at Japan's feet. The missing Tail of Metal that the Pict had abducted from Japan, and the missing Tail of Wind from Kura.<p>

She counted Japan's fingers. She now had the Tail of Water from America, the Tail of Wood from Italy, the Tail of Metal and the Tail of Wind from the Pict, the Tail of Fire from France, the Tail of Electricity from Britain, the Tail of Light from Russia, and the Tail of Earth from Germany. She only had her most powerful Tail to reclaim, and then she would regain all of her ancient demonic abilities. Then Earth would pay for its crimes.

* * *

><p>But somewhere far, far away, a young woman with brown hair in a ponytail woke up. She stretched, and glanced up. She was aware that she was in some other world, perhaps some other time. But the jump from the Ninetails prison area had brought her here. And the fact was that she wouldn't be redirected anywhere where the Tails weren't. Ninetails' will to reclaim her powers were too strong to throw the psychics off-guard. Kura scowled. Ninetails was just using the T-PO and K-PO to find her missing Tails. In other words, there was a Tail around here.<p>

The sand dunes were tall and dusty, the air was dry, and the sun was beating down on her back, but was suddenly blocked out by a tall figure. It stuck out a hand, and she took it. The figure brought her to her feet, but his face was not all that warm.

"Hello, Kura," the voice welcomed.

"Ken."


	20. Strange Findings: Holy Roman Empire

**Strange Findings: Holy Roman Empire**

"What are you doing here, Kura?" Ken asked. His voice was neutral, lacking emotion, if not stony.

"Why so cold, T-PO junk?"

"Because you treat the T-PO like junk. We have had it with your mouth."

"You aren't the boss of me."

"And you're not the boss of us! So stop using us to make you look better!"

"Shut up."

"Don't tell me to shut up! How'd you get here, anyway?"

"Don't ask for the details." Kura snapped. "Listen, there is a crisis going on back on Earth."

"We _are_ on Earth." Ken muttered.

"No, back wherever the present time is, you know, 2011/12 ish…" Ken nodded. He could feel the agitation seeping off of Kura's shoulders. "Anyway, we need to focus on finding that missing Tail and keep it away from Ninetails."

"Easier said than done." There was a pause. "Wait, how many tails have you found already?"

"I… I don't know." Kura sighed. Ken lifted his hands and a pink light started to pulsate from his palms.

"I can't feel any energy. We're too far away from the time and place she is." Kura was about to say something, but Ken cut her off. "The Tail of Darkness is here; I can feel it in my aura."

"Yeah. So we~"

"It's her most powerful Tail. She'll be wanting this one back most, I believe, regardless of which Tails she may or may not have." Kura nodded. "And the two Hellhound troops she keeps will probably be on the scent." Kura nodded again. "And if she knows where we are and which Tail is here, those Hellhounds won't give a second thought of ripping us to shreds."

"But the only question now is where is that goddamn Tail?"

* * *

><p>Meanwhile, at a quaint house somewhere in the still-developing world, a very young child in a green dress was sweeping the floor. The building was made of marble and brick; it was an extremely elegant place, well, for its time, anyway. The sound of a Grand piano resonated through the halls. And a boy was watching the maid clean. He was blushing. He had striking blue eyes, canary yellow hair, and some extravagant black hat and cloak that made him look like a superhero-pirate in drag.<p>

The two of them could see each other; they were in the same room. They were smiling sweetly. The boy was sitting on a stool, watching the 'girl' clean. The maid gave 'her' broom one more little push, and the dust bunnies went flying, but in a graceful manner. Something sparkly caught the boy's glance.

"Italia, stop." He said.

"Holy Roma? What is it?" The maid called 'Italia' asked. Holy Rome jumped down from his stool. His hands reached for a small black sphere flowing with some kind of black fire. He picked it up. Italia watched as he lifted the bead. "Shiny!" 'She' exclaimed in 'her' high-pitched voice. "Can I see it?" She stretched out a hand.

"Careful, I don't know what it is." Holy Rome handed 'her' the bead. 'She' rolled it in 'her' hand. The broom 'she' was using fell down, making a _thwack_ sound. 'She' jumped, and the bead rolled out of 'her' hand. "Ugh! Italia," Holy Rome grunted, running after the runaway bead. It was heading straight for the kitchen.

The door opened suddenly, and the bead bounced off someone's foot. Holy Rome scooped up the bead and then looked up at Austria staring down at him. "What's that?" He fumed. Holy Rome shrugged. "Let me see." He too, held out a hand. Holy Rome placed it in his palm. He inspected it. "What is this, part of your marble collection?"

"Whatever it is, it's mine," Holy Rome stated, reaching out to take it back.

"It seems odd."

"Holy Roma, is it your shooter?" Holy Rome nodded, deciding to agree, since he wanted to keep it for himself. He also wanted Austria to stop asking questions. Austria narrowed his eyes, but he nodded and passed through the kitchen. Holy Rome and Italy watched him leave.

When he left, Holy Rome and Italia observed the steady flow of the fire inside the 'marble'.

"What are you going to do with it?" 'She' asked.

"I don't know yet. It's defiantly not a marble," Holy Rome replied.

"It looks weird," Italia commented. The fire continued to dance in the sphere. After five minutes of watching it, Holy Rome slipped it into one of his pockets.

"I'll keep it here for safe keeping."

"Okay." Italia resumed 'her' duties sweeping and dusting, while Holy Rome returned to his stool. But instead of watching 'her' sweep like before, he drifted off into his own thoughts. But his daydreaming didn't last long. Italia began to act strange. Holy Rome looked up. He saw 'her' sniffing the air.

"Italia, what's wrong?"

"It smells like something is cooking!" Italia exclaimed in excitement. Holy Rome sniffed the air, too. But the smell was far too unpleasant to be simply something cooking.

"I think it's more like something is _burning_." Italia flew into a panicked state.

"_Burning_? Holy Roma, what do we do?" 'She' started to flail about.

"What Mr. Austria told us to do in a fire emergency- get out of the house and don't breathe in smoke!" Holy Rome dropped onto his hands and knees, with Italia following behind him, also on all fours. For a minute, all Holy Rome could think about was being in front of Italia rather than behind 'her'… But he quickly shook off the thought and continued crawling through the house, even though there was no smoke to be seen. They approached the backdoor right away, and Holy Rome opened it using a cloth. What was outside waiting for them was unlike anything they had ever seen before.

An entire ring of fire encased the house, trapping all who were inside. Two canine-like beings were standing guard, right outside the backdoor. One was a German shepherd; the other was a green wolf. They were both snarling at the two Nations, pinning them with predatory glares.

"Holy Roma!" Italia ducked behind Holy Rome, while the Nation in black held the broom like a weapon. But his face revealed fear. The two dogs suddenly focused their attention on Holy Rome. Their eyes peered through his skin, as if searching his soul.

"He has it." The wolf growled. The German shepherd took a menacing step forward, and Holy Rome would not chance it any longer.

"Run!" He ordered. Italia needed no further encouragement. 'She' ran, with Holy Rome close behind. Needless to say, the two dogs caught up with them in no time. The wolf leaped up and pinned Holy Rome down.

"You thought you could outrun us?" She snarled. "Foolish child. Now return what is rightfully ours and _maybe_ you'll escape with your lives."

"I don't know what you're talking about!" Holy Rome started to panic.

"Holy Roma!" Italia tried to get to him, but the German shepherd stood in 'her' way.

"Italia, get Mr. Austria!" Holy Rome commanded. "Get them!" Italia ran back inside the house, just barely missing the fangs of the dog.

"Mr. Austria! Ms. Hungary! Help! Help!" 'Her' shrill voice called. The German shepherd pounced, pinning Italia. He pushed slashed 'her' nose, making 'her' cry out.

"Shut up, morsel!" He thundered. Italia let loose another outburst, only making the shepherd bark. 'She' fell silent, whimpering slightly. "That's better, eh?"

"Get the hell off her!" Came a strong, commanding voice. A frying pan collided with the shepherd, taking him off-guard. Hungary had appeared, and she did not come unarmed.

"Ms. Hungary!" Italia exclaimed. "What about Holy Roma?"

"Get away!" This time, a rigid, masculine voice sounded, as a silhouette leaped on top of the wolf.

"Mr. Austria!"

"We've got things here; now run!" Austria yelled.

"Run, Italia!" Hungary repeated, and Italia took off running. Holy Rome followed close behind.

"No!" The wolf howled in frustration. "Don't let him escape!" The two of them tried to chase after the young Nations running away, but Austria and Hungary jumped in front of them.

"Going somewhere?" Hungary spat.

"Out of our way!" The shepherd roared.

"Make me!" Austria retorted. The wolf released a snarl. She pounced, and Hungary batted her back with the frying pan. But the wolf landed on her feet, and the two dogs continued the onslaught. Hungary and Austria were unconsciously backing up. It wasn't until they felt the flames licking at their backs that they realized they had been retreating. With that, Austria charged at the shepherd, but the wolf simply jumped higher than Austria's height. She landed on Austria's back, kicking off of him, and launching herself after the children. Austria, luckily, had reached out and grabbed the back leg of the wolf. She whirled around and sunk her teeth into his shoulder.

"No!" Hungary cried, starting to bolt after the wolf, but the shepherd held her back.

"Going somewhere?" He sneered.

* * *

><p>"This way!" Ken exclaimed; his hand was extended in front of him with a sphere of pink energy in his palm. He and Kura had picked up insane power levels, and they were now tracking them to their sources. They were currently running across some kind of plain, now out of the strange desert. The desert they were in probably didn't even have a geographical location on Earth. Kura would've bet one million that it was simply an illusion created by Ninetails.<p>

They approached Austria's house, only to be welcomed by the ring of fire surrounding the estate. The two dogs, Pine (the wolf) and Thor (the shepherd), had the two grown Nations pinned to the ground. Austria's eyes were slammed shut, and Hungary was struggling to break out of Thor's grip.

"Hey! Why don't you pick on someone that actually has a chance?" Kura thundered. Pine's eyes shifted to the two psychics outside of the fire barrier.

"Is that us?" Ken whispered to Kura. Kura elbowed him, rather hard. Ken turned back to Pine, clearing his throat. _Well that was stupid_… he thought. He and Kura dropped into a fighting stance, while Pine leaped off of Austria, leaped over the fire ring and growled at them. But instead of attacking, she simply bared her teeth and asked in a menacing way,

"Don't you think four on two is a little bit unfair?"

"Don't you think going after _children_ is a bit savage?" Austria challenged.

"Shut up!" Thor snapped, swatting him in the nose. A little blood flowed.

"_Children_?" Ken exclaimed. "There are _children_ here?"

"Yeah, but they aren't here. They would've been long gone by now!" Hungary yelled, with a satisfied smirk on her face. She managed to yank an arm free from the shepherd's grip and sock the dog in the nose. Thor let out a pitiful whimper (dogs' noses are very sensitive) and jumped back. Hungary rose to her feet, grabbed her frying pan on the ground and held it in a defensive position.

Pine and the two psychics were circling each other. Thor was crouched, facing Hungary. Austria had lost consciousness. But now, it was Thor's time to smirk. He barked once, and Pine suddenly turned tail and took off running. Realizing what she had done, Kura slapped her forehead.

"I shouldn't have told her to face us!" She hissed out loud. Ken whizzed right past her.

"She's going after the children!"

"Why?"

"Isn't it obvious? _They_ have the Tail of Darkness!"

"The kids?" Hungary exclaimed.

"Let's go!" Ken led the charge after Pine. Thor was quickly catching up to them. "Get back!" Ken ordered, firing a pink sphere of his aura at the dog. Thor jumped back in time. Ken continued to fire, covering Kura and Hungary. They just so happened to run across a bridge leading over a river. Ken managed to fire at Thor's paws; Thor lost his balance and fell into the river. There was a moment of disbelief before Ken announced, "We lost him!" as the bridge faded into the distance. But he spoke too soon. Seemingly from out of the sky, the shepherd appeared in front of the three of them, creating a crater in the ground.

"Don't be so sure!" He growled.

"How did he do that?" Hungary screamed.

"Being a Hellhound has its rewards."

"Hellhound?" The Nation was close to stuttering now.

"Yes, it's a _very_ high ranking Demon- it's only one level below a Kitsune." Ken informed.

"Well you seem to be the brains of the lot," Thor sneered.

"Hey, I try." Thor suddenly charged with a roar.

* * *

><p>"Keep running, Italia!" Holy Rome panted. He and Italia weren't getting all that far. Their legs were way too small to cover the necessary ground. They had only passed the bridge a good eight minutes ago, and even then, they could see a green speck approaching at high speeds.<p>

"Holy Roma, I can't!" Italia wheezed. 'Her' chest was aching. 'She' was not built for these long, drawn out runs. 'She' was a sprinter. 'She' let go of Holy Rome's hand and dropped to 'her' knees. He could pick up 'her' breath even from seven feet away.

"Italia, you can't give up now!" He exclaimed, also panting from the exertion.

"I've got you now!" Came the rough, female voice. Holy Rome didn't even have time to scream. The wolf grabbed him by the throat (which he really doesn't have, so more like upper chest), came crashing down on Italia's head to paralyze 'her', and continued to run.

"Holy Roma!" Italia cried from 'her' helpless position on the ground. But the Holy Roman Empire was long gone by then.

Pine had him in her jaws; her claws were starting to glow pink. She took a flying leap upwards, and using both her claws, she struck a hole through the space-time continuum. It was an incredibly small one; it wasn't even three feet long. But it was big enough for Pine to make contact with, and it sent the two of them sailing through time and space.

* * *

><p>"No!" Hungary cried. She watched as Pine disappeared with Holy Rome in her jaws. She was about to reach out towards the hole, when Thor leaped onto her head, catapulting himself into the air and into the hole.<p>

"Quick, before it closes!" Kura ordered. Ken knelt down, and Kura stepped onto his knee. She jumped off him, launching herself into the air and at the hole. Ken just managed to touch her shoe as she touched the hole. The both of them went sailing into the rip, and then it closed behind them, leaving a wailing Hungary on the other side.


	21. The Pink Meteor

**The Pink Meteor**

Japan tensed. The rubble of the spaceship had just moved. And thanks to his demonic senses, he could tell that it wasn't just gravity. Someone had survived the crash. But by the level of power, there was only one survivor. A hand thrust out from under the sharp stones and heavy debris. Of course it would be _that one_. Scarlett.

Suddenly, Ninetails' senses picked up. A dimension hole was opening. She looked up to see the pink hole tear open in the sky. And coming from it was a few people. Two of them were her ever-faithful subordinates. The other three were humans, or related to them in some way, and one of those humans had what she wanted.

Her senses picked up on Holy Rome right away. Japan stuck out his hand, palm up, at the blond in black. "Give," she commanded. Her voice was distorted, a combination of hers and Japan's.

"Give what?" Holy Rome asked timidly.

"You will pay for your disobedience!" Japan raised her staff and brought it crashing down on Holy Rome's body.

"Hey!" Kura snapped at Ninetails as Ken cradled Holy Rome, who had been knocked out in one strike. "What the hell is with you, taking it out on children? Have a heart, bitch!"

Japan's head tilted, as if in curiosity. He kept his poker face. "I have no business with you twelve, except to destroy your little 'organization'. You fooled me once, and trust me; I do not like to be fooled!" The Ninetails raised her staff. Kura readied her stance.

Suddenly and without warning, Scarlett came up from behind and tackled Japan, shouting curses in her native tongue. Pine and Thor acted quickly, and in a flash, they got the girl off of their master. Ninetails turned around, bristling.

"Foolish Dalmascen!" She growled. "You will die for your insolence!" And Demoness Ninetails never breaks her promises. The staff cracked the Dalmascen Princess' head open in a mess of blood and innards. But a distress signal in Scarlett's necklace had already sent the message of her death.

"Now look what you've done!" Kura snapped.

"I took down the Pict; I can take down the Dalmascen Empire!"

* * *

><p>Meanwhile, Ken's aura began to glow around his body. Holding Holy Rome in his arms, he began the healing process. Holy Rome's shattered body had started to return to its normal state, and all of the blood that had been lost was regained. The small nation blinked.<p>

"Rise and shine, sonny." Ken snickered. Holy Rome jumped up in alarm. "Whoa, whoa, it's okay, little guy! I'm not gonna hurt you."

"Who are you all? Where am I?" The questions started to pour out of the terrified child.

"Look out!" Ken exclaimed, grabbing Holy Rome and ducking, just before a piece of the destroyed Pict mother ship hit them. Just at that moment, another shadow could be seen in the distance, and it was gaining on them.

"Who is that?" Kura demanded. Ken's eyes just flashed as he identified the energy waves.

"Relax, it's just SS and Aid, two more of your K-PO members." Ken simply stated.

"And is there something wrong with that?"

"I never said anything of the sort." That's when SS and Aid reached the two of them.

"No time to explain! It's Germany; we need you to help him!" Aid panted, and then just turned tail to run in Germany's direction. Ken got up to follow, but Ninetails quickly thrust Japan in his way. But as Ken caught the nation, he noticed that he was unconscious. Ninetails had left his body! But if that was true, then where was she?

Turning around, he got his answer. Demoness Ninetails, in fully-fledged power, was towering over him. Her smoky-thick purple hide was dancing around her form. She had all nine tails. Grabbing Holy Rome in alarm, he started to shout, "Where is that bead?" The young nation whimpered. But it was obvious that Demoness Ninetails had reclaimed it, anyway.

"What do we do now, genius?" Kura spat.

"Well, the last time we faced this demon, it didn't turn out so hot. And tricking her again most definitely isn't an option." Ken stopped and started to think. Then his eyes widened.

"What?" Kura demanded.

"We could recreate the cause of her initial weakness and then take her down!"

"Well how do we do that?"

"Well, we'd need to know what shrank her to that state in the first place~"

"Look out!" Kura suddenly slammed into Ken just in time as a tail came crashing down where they were. A massive crater was all that remained. "Save the chit-chat for later! Get to SS and Aid; they may know something else! I'll hold her off!"

"All three of them?"

"Well, unless I magically sprout healing abilities like yours, I don't think we have much choice!" Kura panted as she dodged another incoming tail. Ninetails let out a roar of frustration. This was the hard thing about these humans. They were always so hard to kill.

Ken leaped up to take out Kura's orders as the head of the K-PO fought the Ninetails. Holy Rome was in his arms. Tracking SS and Aid's auras, he found them quickly. They were kneeling over Germany's unconscious form, trying to stop the bleeding. Italy was leaking rivers from his eyes, crying hysterically. And Holy Rome was gaping from Germany to Italy, who still had yet to notice him.

"That's me…" He breathed as Ken started to use whatever was left of his healing power to aid the German. "That can't be me…"

"H-holy Roma?" Italy's voice snapped the young nation out of his thoughts. But before he could react, a pair of strong arms had wrapped themselves around him. Wet, salty streaks were flying down his back, and wails of joy and sorrow found their way to his ears.

"I-Italia?" Holy Rome asked in disbelief. "No, you're supposed to be a… a girl!" As if Italy hadn't heard the question, the wailing coward simply hugged the poor nation with no letup.

"You came back! I knew you would!" He cried in between sobs.

"I… I never left, Italia." This time a different voice spoke up. Italy let go of Holy Rome to face Germany, who was just regaining consciousness.

"Germany?" Italy breathed once again. Instead of addressing Italy though, Germany turned to Holy Rome.

"That hole in my memory… it was you." Holy Rome took a step back.

Ken looked back and forth from the two blond nations, when suddenly, a shriek made itself known. They all whirled around to see the giant Ninetails, the size of a diplodocus, plodding towards them, with Kura suspended in a dark flame.

"No time to explain!" Ken suddenly exclaimed and sharply turned towards Germany and Italy. "Do you remember how the Ninetails got here, or anything that could have been something like that?"

"I… nothing…" Germany whispered. "It was so far back, first the repeated meetings, the murders, Scarlett, you _dummkopfs_… It's all too confusing."

"_Ve~_ Germany, what about pretty lights?" Italy asked. Ken perked up.

"What pretty lights?"

"You don't mean…" Germany stopped and let the memory return. "Yes, there was a pink meteorite one night, and only one night. All the other nights were the same, with the same clear sky… It was that one time!"

"And _that's_ how this all started!" SS snapped. She had already caught onto the plan.

"And that's how it's all going to end," Aid finished.

"What's going on?" Holy Rome asked in a startled tone.

"We need to recreate that meteorite! That was how the Ninetails got here and that's what caused the time loop. That's also what caused the extermination of the countries and their lands." Ken explained.

"Just who are you people?" Germany roared.

"No time! Just run!" SS snapped again, and the others were more than happy to obey. They all dashed through the Pict-ified New York City, with Ninetails' dogs right behind them.

Panting, Germany asked a key question. "But how do we bring back the meteor?"

"Hey, give me a second! I'm a healer, not a genius!" Ken half-growled, but it didn't sound as intimidating as he had first planned. Completely out of breath, the psychic ducked for cover behind a building in an alleyway.

"You can run, but you can't hide!" Came the voice like an overhead speaker. But for an ancient demoness, the Ninetails was surprisingly taking her merry little time. She was probably just playing psychological mind games with them. But at least, that bought them some time, even if the time wasn't exactly a time-out time.

"Well let's use the knowledge we already have." Aid suggested. "The meteor is what brought all of this misfortune."

"It brought Ninetails." Germany added.

"And the time loopy!" Italy interrupted.

"Yes, the temporal paradox is a powerful phenomena. It's how the demoness weaves her way into society." Ken tied up the loose end.

"So," SS started, "what if _we_ created our own temporal paradox? One that was strong enough to summon the meteor?"

"Wait," Germany coughed, "we can summon the meteor? And even after that, does everything return to normal?"

"First off, it depends on what you consider 'normal', and second, there's really no way of knowing. But if you want the Ninetails gone, then this temporal paradox is the best thing we've got."

"But how?" Germany continued to throw on the pressure.

"Hold it!" Ken stopped him. "A temporal paradox is caused by time overlapping itself, and one way to create a temporal paradox is by causing time travel. Kura and I have just come out of a temporal travel, and so has Holy Roman Empire."

"But don't we have to be careful with this kind of thing?"

"Of course. But~"

"Found you!" The sneer came from around the corner, and there, staring them in the face, was the Demoness. She opened her mouth under her mask and fired a great beam of demonic energy.

"Look out!" Everyone got out of the way, but someone forgot Holy Rome. There was a terrified cry, which turned into a shriek of pain. The beam of black energy faded to reveal Holy Rome, once again, completely shattered.

"Ken!" SS ordered.

"I can't! I used the last of my power on Germany!" Ken exclaimed. Germany. That's it! "Germany, take Holy Rome and heal him! Fix him up!" Ken ordered.

"What? Me? Why can't it be Italy?"

"Germany, if Holy Rome dies, then you die! The Prussian Empire saved you after you had been mortally wounded by France- now it's your turn to save yourself and the world you know and love!"

"Saving your own life via temporal paradox is a strong enough distortion in the space-time continuum to summon the meteor!" Aid added desperately.

"Enough chat!" A paw came slamming down on the tall psychic and flung him into the air. Italy screeched in terror as Germany gave him a shove under the Ninetails' paws, into her blind spot. Germany soon followed with Holy Rome in his arms.

* * *

><p>They ran and ran and ran, leaving behind the battle cries and sounds of destruction. The dogs didn't seem to be following them. Germany pulled over again, but in a more secure area with more blind spots. The Demoness would have trouble spotting them with sight, but they would have problems seeing her approaching. Also, the dogs could probably scent them out anyway. So they had to work quickly.<p>

Setting Holy Rome down, Germany turned to Italy. "What do I do?" He demanded.

"Make him feel better!" Italy replied in his panicky tone.

"How? He's not bleeding- nothing has been broken! It's like he's been electrocuted but worse!" Just when Germany was about to throw in the towel, he felt an extreme jolt. He perked up right away.

"Germany!" Italy cried in worry. Germany, however, did not react. He simply stared down at the tiny nation in his lap. More electrical shocks came, but they seemed to be less intense. Holy Rome's eyes fluttered open, but they remained dull.

"We are one and the same…" He murmured.

"Wha~?" Italy trailed off.

"I can't explain it, but it's like we share a connection of some sort! The more of the damage he gives me, the more he recovers, or something… But that doesn't change the fact that I still don't know what to~"

"Ready?" A whisper interrupted him. Germany had only time to glance back down at Holy Rome before dark volts of electrical energy were sent coursing through is veins. It was an acidic fire with its own glint of magic in them. And it stung. Germany could only describe it as an exchange of suffering for regeneration. The more demonic energy he took from the child, the more the child recovered. And still, he had no idea how any of them ever figured out how this worked.

And boy did it work. The Demoness stopped her assault- the dogs ceased the bloodshed, and the sky opened up in a dazzling aurora of light. However, the light was distorted, and out of said light came a giant, pink meteor.

* * *

><p>Completely taken off guard, the Demoness and her two dogs took a full-on hit. There was a huge explosion of glazing flashes and colors, swallowing the area for at least one square mile. Using what was left of her power she released a roar of pure and ancient demonic magic, creating a shield.<p>

The pink meteor sucked the three demons up and threw them into the ever-flowing rift of the space-time continuum. And along with them, everything that was ever brought on by the temporal paradox it created had been sucked in as well. That included all of the deaths that had occurred from the madness brought on by the paradox, the destroyed land, everything. But the psychics weren't dumb; they knew she'd strike again. And they had to get moving.


	22. Back To Normal?

**Back to Normal…?**

Breathing hard and shielding their eyes from the light, the psychics finally had a chance to rest. The sky was still open; a rift of distortion was still in plain sight. But other than that, everything seemed normal. Except for one thing…

"Is it over?" Kura, Ken, SS, and Aid turned around to face the two countries. _They still had their memories_.

"For you… yes. But not for us." Seemingly out of nowhere, the rest of the psychics showed up.

"I see you all cleaned up this mess well." Taik commented.

"Yes, but we'll need to keep close track of her. She could be anywhere." More cautions and comments were thrown about, but Italy stopped them all.

"Where's Holy Rome?" He asked. Droplets of tears were forming in his eyes. "I- I never got a chance to say goodbye…" A hand gripped his.

"One and the same, remember?" Germany whispered. Taik narrowed her eyes. Ken faced her, unsure of her actions.

"Why can't you let them keep their memories?" Ken asked.

"Under normal circumstances, I would make sure you all forgot what you had seen." Germany narrowed his eyes and bared his teeth. There was _no way_ he would let these strangers near his mind. "But, on the account that you are not human, our psychic powers probably wouldn't work on you at all. So we will give you a grace."

"Hold it," Kura stopped her. "Why do you decide what we do? It's best that they forget. Besides, our mind erase has never _not_ worked. Why should this time be any different?"

"No, please!" A shrill voice exclaimed. They turned to Italy. "I… I finally have my Holy Roma back… Don't make me forget that I found him again! I can't bear to loose him like Grandpa Rome!" Tears started to trickle from the corners of his eyes. How could the psychics _not _be touched by this display?

They still weren't. Kura was about to give the final order, when a cellphone rang. Taik dug around in her pocket and pulled it out.

"Hello?" She asked. "Hi! Hemmington… Yes, we just got rid of her… no, unfortunately, we don't know where she went…wait- you figured it out… a message? What kind of message? Yeah… really? That's… Okay… Err, wait! No, one last thing. Can we leave our client's memories untouched, just this once? Please, it's for a really good reason."

"Taik, begging our boss isn't going to work." Kura groaned.

"Really? You will? Thank you, Hemmington, thank you! This won't ever happen again!" And with that, she closed the phone.

"So he actually let them keep their memories?"

"Yup!"

"Yay!" Italy's shout wrung out over the crowd.

"All right," Kura snapped. "Your world is back in order. Your people are safe. We have a monster to catch."

"But we have so many questions…" Germany protested.

"But we have so little time" Kura shot back. "We're letting you keep your memories. Don't ask anymore than that." With that, the twelve psychics all grabbed hands and started to chant. The same pink hue that came with the meteor surrounded them, and soon enough, they had disappeared. The only thing left was a looming voice, but it sounded more like twelve looming voices, speaking as if this were a voiceover:

"You would be wise to never speak of these events again."

* * *

><p>Time passed. Things eventually returned to normal. The countries never forgot what had taken place, but they all agreed to never speak of it, except of course for Italy's conversations with Germany. Now that Italy knows that Holy Rome had indeed returned to him, he could no longer refer to Germany as just 'Germany'. He was now, like he had always ben: "Holy Roman Empire".<p>

The temporal rift had closed completely. But because of the fact that the Nations knew that they were not alone, they had secret, underground organizations created to keep extraterrestrial interactions under control. The media still has yet to find out about this.

The Nations were lucky that the humans hadn't been affected- they didn't remember a thing.

Scarlett of Dalmasca and the Pict Empire were still at war, but it was as if nothing had ever brought them to Earth in the first place.

The dead countries that had been killed because of the temporal madness had been resurrected.

Russia's madness was never cured.

As you can see, many things had happened as a result of these series of events. And many things could've happened. Nothing can really be said about these events and how they came to be. But we can all safely say one thing- Planet Earth got off lucky… this time.

* * *

><p>Holy crap... that was <span>Time and Time Again<span>, folks, another story off my mind. Let me tell you- this was great fun to write, but it started to get tedious over time. I know this story isn't perfect, and it needs revising, but for a while, at least, I am done thinking about it. Man... I don't even know if I liked the ending... it seemed a bit abrupt, even though I knew I wanted to wrap it up in the next few chapters...

Okay, and I would appreciate feedback. Now I can finally sleep at night, knowing this story is OVER WITH...

*Author collapses*


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